A mum felt like a ‘ticking time bomb’ after doctors spotted a deadly brain aneurysm that could burst and kill her at any moment when she was 36 weeks pregnant - but medics managed to save her and the baby.
Sarah Pilgrim, 31, was 34 weeks along with her third child, 14-week-old Sydney, when she kept waking up with 'severe' headaches in January 2022. She feared it was pre-eclampsia - a rare pregnancy complication - but all the tests were coming back negative until an MRI revealed she had actually suffered a bleed on the brain.
The heavily pregnant mum was rushed to Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge, where she was diagnosed with an arteriovenous malformation (AVM) - a tangle of unusual blood vessels. Doctors suspected Sarah was born with AVM and the change in her blood pressure whilst pregnant expanded the vessels - potentially causing a deadly aneurysm and haemorrhage.
