Mother wakes from coma to ask: Whose baby is that?

by MICHAEL SEAMARK, Daily Mail

When Carina Marong's husband walked into the hospital ward proudly carrying their six-week-old daughter, her reaction left him somewhat bewildered.

'Whose baby is that?' she demanded to know. Refusing to believe little Sophia was theirs, she said accusingly: 'Who did you have this baby with?'

It wasn't until she was shown a photograph of herself - clearly pregnant - that the truth began to dawn on her.

For Mrs Marong had just 'awoken' from a month in a virtual coma. As she battled to overcome meningitis and cancer, her mind had been wiped clean of all memories of 2001.

And she was astonished to be told she had given birth naturally to a baby daughter last August.

Yesterday Abdoulie Marong, 32, and his wife returned to the Royal Sussex County Hospital, in Brighton, to thank medical staff for their care and expertise.

Cradling their child, the couple laughed at memories of what they called the 'rude awakening'.

When Mrs Marong emerged from the coma her husband told her their daughter, Aisha, three, had a sister.

His wife remembered waking from the coma but nothing else.

She recalled: 'When I woke up everything was dark and I could not feel my heart beating - I thought I had died.

'People were walking around in uniforms and I asked them if they were dead too!'

Mrs Marong's ordeal began last August when she was admitted to hospital with severe headaches and drowsiness. Tests revealed she had contracted the rare tuberculous form of meningitis. Neurologist Dr Angus Nisbet said: 'The condition is fatal if not treated promptly.'

Although seriously ill, Mrs Marong, 39, gave birth to 5lb 11ozs Sophia on August 25.

But then she was diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma, and soon fell a 'deep pseudo-coma'.

Consultant oncologist David Bloomfield said: 'Her limbs were contorted and she couldn't talk.

'But she seemed to understand with her eyes. She would move them in a meaningful manner.

'It was a case where somebody had no control of their body but were actually fully conscious.'

At the time Mrs Marong was too ill to be treated for her cancer, and doctors admitted her chances of a complete recovery appeared slight.

But in October she slowly reentered a world she found she had little recollection of.

Mrs Marong, from Hangleton, Hove, said: 'The whole of 2001 had gone, as if it didn't exist.

'I remember thinking, "What a very sweet baby you've got thereî when my husband brought her in, but wondered who she was.

'I can't remember anything about the pregnancy or giving birth,' added Mrs Marong, who met her husband while on holiday in the Gambia, in Africa.

The meningitis has probably permanently affected Mrs Marong's memory of last year, but she continues to make progress medically.'