Woman and Her Twins Survive Mother's Heart Attack, Labor

LONDON, April 17, 2009— -- Giving birth to twins is a challenge in and of itself without having to survive a heart attack before an emergency Caesarean and then hours of open-heart surgery immediately afterward.

But Nina Whear did just that, becoming the first woman in Britain, and the second in the world, to give birth to twins at the same time she had surgery to repair a torn aorta.

Aortic dissection is a potentially life-threatening condition in which there is bleeding into and along the wall of the aorta, the major artery leaving the heart.

Whear beat all odds by surviving and recovering from about eight hours of surgery that included giving birth to healthy twins Alfie and Evie.

"This was a very extraordinary case," surgeon Sam Nashaf told ABC News. "It almost never happens that a pregnant woman needs this kind of surgery. All odds were against her, but she survived."

Whear, 38, said, "I'm so grateful that I survived this, that I have been praying and saying thanks every day. It's so great to be with my children. I didn't think that was possible when I went into surgery."

The doctors who diagnosed Whear gave her a 7 percent chance of surviving the rare procedure. She is now recovering in her home in Lamas, Norfolk.

"Even doctors don't know everything," Nashaf said of the poor odds doctors gave her. "Infection of the aorta is the most serious surgical emergency there is. This condition sheers off the wall of the aorta like wallpaper, which puts you in a very high risk of fatal bleeding, among other complications."

Whear, who experienced a difficult pregnancy, had been in and out of the hospital many times. But then she woke up one night about three months with breathing problems. Unable to move or talk, Whear woke up her mother, Anne George, who was staying with her.