Parents who turned down abortion 5 times celebrate son’s first day at school

A boy considered to be so severely disabled that his parents were told five times to have an abortion has started at school.

Davey was diagnosed with a rare developmental abnormality while in the womb and given only a 15 per cent chance of survival.

Parents Sami and Paul Bates were repeatedly advised to abort him, but refused.

‘Impossible’

Doctors diagnosed Davey with congenital diaphragmatic hernia (CDH), which is where vital organs from the abdomen – such as the intestines – rise up into the chest cavity and prevent the lungs from growing properly.

Mum Sami told The Daily Mail: “It was appointments and scans every three weeks, almost invariably with doctors advising us to end the pregnancy.

“It was as severe a case of CDH as the doctors had ever seen. It just seemed impossible he could survive outside of my womb, but we couldn’t live with ourselves if we didn’t at least give him a chance.”

In fact, Davey returned home within weeks of corrective surgery and has subsequently thrived.

School career

Anticipating the four-year-old’s first day at school on Wednesday in Mirfield, West Yorkshire, Sami said: “I’ll be the proudest mum on earth when I wave him off at the school gates.”

She added: “With everything he has been through, it is a day we thought may never happen. I’m not sure I’ll be able to hold it together.”

In the UK it is legal to abort a child up to 24 weeks for most reasons, or up to birth when the unborn child is thought to have a disability.