Mother and unborn baby saved by Viagra during life-threatening pregnancy

'New life': Laura Ling was able to give birth to Rosie-May after taking tablets
Ross Lydall @RossLydall9 November 2015

A mother who was given Viagra after developing a rare life-threatening condition during pregnancy today told how the impotence drug helped to save her and her unborn baby.

Laura Ling, 36, was so ill she was told that continuing with the pregnancy — she was 23 weeks’ pregnant at the time — could risk her life. She was advised to consider an abortion.

She had developed breathlessness and swollen ankles and could feel her heart racing. She put it down to the pregnancy but was diagnosed with pulmonary arterial hypertension, which restricts blood flow and causes the heart to become dangerously enlarged.

She was transferred to Hammersmith hospital, a specialist centre for the condition, while obstetricians from adjacent sister hospital Queen Charlotte’s and Chelsea looked after her unborn child.

Three months later, in April 2013, she gave birth to a healthy daughter, Rosie-May, a sister to Henry, now six.

Today Mrs Ling, a Border Force worker from Dover, recalled the drama as she promoted a comic book written with the help of doctors at Hammersmith to explain the condition to children whose parents are affected.

She said: “I was breathless and unable to walk from the sofa to the living room door. I knew I was dying. I knew my heart wasn’t working properly. Now it just seems like a really, really bad dream.”

She still receives regular checks and continues to take three Viagra tablets a day. The drug causes the arteries to expand, easing her blood flow.

“My friends took the mickey out of me,” she said. “It was funny, in a dark situation. They still laugh about it now when I get the blue tablets out.”

In May, she and husband James renewed their wedding vows and took the children to Orlando.

“I have got a new life now and I love it. I live every day for my family,” she said.

Dr Simon Gibbs, a consultant cardiologist at Hammersmith, and specialist nurse Wendy Gin-Sing helped design the comic book.

He described pulmonary arterial hypertension, which affects about 3,000 people, as “absolutely horrendous”.

It typically takes two years to be diagnosed as it is often mistaken for asthma.

Dr Gibbs said: “Only two-thirds of patients survive for three years. Medication slows down the disease but it doesn’t halt it.”

Patients can need a heart and lung transplant but there are no more than 12 such operations a year.

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