Doctors had never seen anything quite like it and heartbroken mum Stacey Fletcher could barely believe her eyes or ears.
Just weeks after losing her baby during an ectopic pregnancy she was back in hospital and told she was still expecting TWINS. They had been “hiding” in her womb.
As if that wasn’t enough of a shock, her emotions went through the roof at a 12-week scan when the twins turned out to be TRIPLETS.
For despite having emergency surgery to remove one embryo from a fallopian tube, Stacey had unwittingly conceived quads.
Three babies were growing normally in the womb.
And four months after the invasive four-hour operation to remove the trapped embryo, Stacey gave birth to identical twins Megan and Marie and brother Oliver.
Quality controller Stacey, 32, said as she cradled the miracle tots: “I still can’t believe I am a mum to triplets – it feels surreal.
“When after the operation I still felt pregnant, I had no idea I actually was. I was shocked.”
The rare condition is known as a heterotopic pregnancy.
Stacey’s partner Damian Taylor, 32, an admin manager, says: “It’s so rare doctors say although they’d heard of it, none of them had ever seen it.
“And no one has ever heard of triplets hiding in the womb like this. It seems the odds of this are a million to one.
“We can’t believe how lucky we are to have them.”
Stacey and Damian already had son Reece, seven, when they decided to try for a second child.
After two years without luck the couple from Kirkham, Lancs, had fertility treatment.
Stacey sayst: “Doctors diagnosed me with polycystic ovaries and prescribed the fertility drug Clomid to help me ovulate.
“I was overjoyed to finally get pregnant.”
But their joy was short-lived as Stacey was rushed to hospital in agony. Doctors diagnosed an ectopic pregnancy.
Stacey adds: “Doctors explained the embryo could not continue to grow in the fallopian tube and if it did, I could die as it would rupture the tube.
“Fortunately they were able to save the tube by giving me a drug to dissolve the embryo and a few months later I was delighted to get pregnant again.”
However, tragedy struck once more as this embryo was also lodged in the same fallopian tube.
The damaged and scarred tube was quickly removed and the couple’s hopes of a sibling for Reece looked doomed.
But two weeks after the operation, Stacey still felt pregnant.
She says: “Medics told me the pregnancy hormones would decrease, but they didn’t seem to be disappearing. I did a pregnancy test and it was positive.
“So fearing something was really wrong with me, I contacted the hospital and they ordered blood tests.”
A day later the hospital called her in for an urgent scan. Stacey says: “When they said the pregnancy hormone levels of HCG were sky high I began to worry.
“Damian was at work so my mum Diane came with me. We were shocked when the ultrasonographer said she could see two heartbeats, pointed to them and said, ‘They’re fine!’”
Stacey quickly called Damian, who says: “When Stacey said we were having twins I couldn’t get my head around it.
“She had to explain a few times that doctors had not spotted them when they did the scans and operation to remove the ectopic pregnancy.
“But they had been developing in the womb all the time.”
Fast-forward four weeks and the news got even better at the 12-week scan. Damian adds: “Stacey and I were stunned when the woman doing the scan said there were three heartbeats.
“Two of the embryos were sharing a placenta so were identical and one was on its own.”
The couple were so joyous they named the unborn trio.
Doctors found the girls had a life-threatening condition known as twin-to-twin transfusion.
Stacey says: “Megan was taking in too much nutrition and growing too large while Marie was too small and was literally starving to death. Doctors explained it was so serious all the babies could die.
“It was such a shock when doctors said they had to deliver the babies immediately.”
On February 8 Stacey was rushed into theatre where Oliver, 1lb 12oz, Marie, 1lb 9oz, and Megan 2lb 12oz, were delivered by emergency C-section.
They were so frail the parents could only touch them through holes in the incubators.
After five days Marie suffered a large bleed on the brain. Doctors thought she might die. The couple held a bedside vigil for five days until Marie’s condition stabilised.
But then Oliver had a reaction to a procedure which left his fingertips blue – while Megan needed surgery on the artery feeding blood from the heart to the lungs.
It was a nerve-jangling time and Damian admits: “For weeks we just lived day to day expecting the worst. But gradually they grew bigger and stronger.”
Oliver was first home on May 11, then Megan and Marie. They are 6.4lb, 7.5lb and 7.1lb respectively.