Fox News correspondent Madeleine Rivera reports on a legal battle involving surrogate mother McKenna West, who traveled to Texas to give birth after refusing the intended parents' request to abort the baby over a congenital heart condition diagnosis.
The surrogate mother who refused an abortion request after the baby she was carrying was diagnosed with a serious heart defect is pressing her legal fight after the newborn underwent lifesaving heart surgery, days after she says he was taken from her just 60 seconds after birth.
McKenna West, an Alaska mother and cardiac nurse who carried the child, said Thursday she is continuing to fight for the baby after she was separated from him moments after giving birth Aug. 12.
"I haven’t been allowed to hold this precious baby boy I carried and protected throughout my pregnancy," West wrote in a New York Post op-ed Thursday.Â
"The only glimpse I got of him was during a very short 60 seconds while his umbilical cord was still connected. As soon as the cord was cut, he was taken away."
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Surrogate mother McKenna West fled to Texas after her baby's birth parents allegedly asked her to abort the child. (Live Action)
West agreed last year to serve as a surrogate for Omar Ahmed and Nausheen Gilkar of California, the child's intended parents.
According to West, Ahmed and Gilkar asked her to terminate the pregnancy after the baby was diagnosed with hypoplastic left heart syndrome, or HLHS, at about 20 weeks. West refused and later traveled to Texas to give birth.
Ahmed and Gilkar's attorney disputes key parts of West's account and says they consented to the child's surgery as soon as doctors determined he was eligible.
Lee Budner, an attorney for Ahmed and Gilkar, said doctors determined on Aug. 14 that the baby, whom Ahmed and Gilkar call Rumi, was eligible for the Norwood procedure, the first of three open-heart surgeries for newborns commonly used to treat HLHS.
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Baby Gabriel, aka Baby Rumi, underwent a successful Norwood procedure, a newborn heart surgery to treat hypoplastic left heart syndrome, or HLHS. (iStock)
"My clients immediately provided consent for the surgery to occur at the hospital’s earliest availability," Budner said in an Aug. 17 statement.
The baby underwent surgery Aug. 17 and is recuperating under the care of Ahmed, Gilkar and his medical team, Budner said, adding that his condition "remains critical and complex."
