'I thought I was dying' Mum lost her sight, hearing and all feeling from the waist up during caesarean birth

The mum had a very traumatic birth

A mum thought she was dying during a caesarean birth due to a rare reaction to the anaesthesia, which left her without her sight, hearing and all feeling from the waist up during the procedure.

Kacey Butterworth, from Australia, was planning to have a water birth but doctors found out her baby was transverse and had an abnormally low heart rate when she went to hospital at 39 weeks.

'Because bub was sideways, if my waters had of broken the cord could've come down before the head,' Kacey told Daily Mail Australia.

'The doctor said that if it had happened, the cord would've been crushed which would've killed bub and it could've caused major issues for me too.'

Kacey and her husband then opted to have a caesarean delivery, but the mother became violently ill after suffering a rare reaction to the anaesthesia.

'When you have a general anaesthetic for surgery, you have the gas mask which puts you to sleep and then you are given a medication to help your organs slow down for the procedure,' the mum told Kidspot.

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'The opposite happened for me. The spinal block went up, instead of down. It hit my brain, causing my lungs to slow down.

'It also explains the loss of sight and hearing and why I could feel everything from waist down, but not up. I felt like I was in hell.'

'I was scared. I had no idea what was going on. It started with a pain in my leg... Then my arm started hurting, (it) felt like someone was stabbing me all over my left arm', she told Daily Mail Australia.

'Then I started getting fuzzy sight and my hearing started to go. I felt sick and felt my heart racing, then I started fitting and vomiting.'

'My chest started feeling like I was being crushed on the table. That's when I started panicking because I was struggling to breathe and I was fitting a lot - I thought I was dying.

'Then I heard them call out that it was 'code red' and I needed to be put under a general straight away. They placed the mask over my face, telling me everything would be OK.'

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Kacey, who's also a mum to three-year-old daughter Lexi, woke up about an hour later in recovery and was taken to see her son. She says seeing baby Isaac, who's now seven months old, was the 'best feeling in the world' after her traumatic experience.

'It was honestly the most relieving feeling. I can't really put it into words. Just feeling his skin touch my skin and looking down at the tiny little human being that my husband and I had created was amazing.

'When they put me under the general anaesthetic, I didn't know what was going to be once I had woken up. So just holding him, knowing that we were both okay - that was the best feeling in the world.'

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