By Craig Smith

A GERMAN MOTHER has thanked Fife doctors for giving her teenage daughter the gift of life—almost 18 years after a pioneering treatment ensured her child’s survival.

Marina Bartels-Claus was holidaying with husband Stefan at a caravan site near Anstruther in 1990 when she began suffering severe abdominal pains and was rushed to hospital.

Doctors removed her appendix but, with the unborn baby’s safety now called into question, she was taken to Forth Park Hospital in Kirkcaldy where midwives were forced to deliver her daughter Annika by caesarean section.

Weighing just 2lb 101/2oz and 11 weeks premature, Annika’s future looked bleak until doctors opted to use what was then considered a revolutionary fluid called synthetic surfactant to help Annika to breathe.

Despite being given a remote chance of survival even after the treatment, Annika did overcome the odds and is now looking forward to celebrating her 18th birthday on Tuesday.

Speaking to The Courier from her home in Iffeldorf, near Munich, yesterday, Marina (40) wished to publicly thank the staff at Forth Park for allowing her to mark such a milestone in her daughter’s life.

“She was very tiny and it’s a wonder that she made it at all,” she said.

“Annika weighed just 2lb 10 1/2oz and she was one of the first babies who won her fight for life because she was helped by use of a treatment which had only been available at Forth Park for a few weeks.

“Even with the new treatment Annika had only a 50-50 chance but she won her fight, and next week she has her 18th birthday —in Germany, that means she will become an adult.

“When I was interviewed in the news, I said I would like to come back to Scotland one day —I haven’t been able to do that but my thoughts are often with Forth Park Hospital to say ‘Thank you, thank you all who made it possible for Annika to be alive’.”

After her birth Annika was on a ventilator for four days and spent 39 days in an incubator, only surviving thanks to the doctors’ decision to use synthetic surfactant—a fluid which helps the lungs of premature babies to expand properly.

Father Stefan, who was a mechanical engineer, had to return home after around three weeks after Annika was born but Marina’s mother flew over to Fife to be with her daughter.

Marina admits it was a testing time for her whole family.

“We were on holiday and then I got the pain in my stomach.

“The doctors found something wrong with my appendix and they took it out but then they found some blood and said it would be better to get the baby out.

“They asked us what we wanted to do but we just said, ‘Do what you can do to save the baby’s life’ and they did it.”

Marina said Annika is now at school studying the German equivalent of A-levels—and is sitting her driving test today.

Marina added, “She was a miracle baby but Annika is fine—I am happy that she is able to be here and I am very proud of what she has done.”

Anne Dickson, NHS Fife directorate manager for women and children, said staff at Forth Park had been “delighted” to catch up with Annika’s progress.

“Her photograph now adorns our picture board —and we have shared the news of her progress amongst team members at Forth Park,” she said.

“We wish her every good fortune in the years to come.”