Paul and Ruth Rankin were overjoyed when they found out they were expecting a baby. But this joy was quickly replaced by fear and grief when doctors told them the heartbreaking news — their daughter Lydia had hydrocephalus and alobaric holoproencephaly (water in the brain and a rare disease in which the two frontal lobes cannot separate). The diagnosis was smelly.
Ruth was 20 weeks pregnant when doctors discovered Lydia’s condition. They advised her to terminate the pregnancy, saying that Lydia would not live for several months, and it was not worth giving birth to her. «The 20-week scan where we found out about this condition was just before Christmas,» Ruth said.»The realization that their precious daughter probably wouldn’t survive was excruciating, but Paul and Ruth refused to terminate the pregnancy.
When Lydia was born, her head was swollen with fluid and weighed 11 pounds —the size of an adult’s head. The doctors told her parents to say goodbye.But then little Lydia did something that the doctors did not expect. She survived.
«It was a roller coaster ride,» Ruth said. «We were told three times in our lives that she was going to die, but she refused. She inspires us all, and her power keeps us alive. »
While the doctors said Lydia would live a couple of months, she defied the odds and now she is a happy and sweet 4—year-old girl.Life was not easy: Lydia had to undergo 40 operations, and she cannot sit, stand or walk on her own. Ruth calls Paul her «rock,» recalling what he told her right after Lydia was born: «Ruth, I just know she’s going to be with us for a long time,» he told her. Although there is no way to know how much time they will spend with Lydia, Rankin is taken daily as it comes, absorbing and appreciating every moment when they get together— as a family.
Ruth says, «She’s our miracle.»
