At just ten weeks old, Rafferty Isaac is already a miracle to his parents, Lucy and Adam, because remarkably, he was born not once, but twice.
While pregnant, Lucy was devastatingly diagnosed with ovarian cancer. At 20 weeks, doctors at John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford performed an extraordinary five-hour operation, temporarily removing her womb – with Rafferty still inside- so they could safely remove the cancerous cells.
After the procedure, Lucy’s womb was returned to her body, and months later, Rafferty was “born again” in late January, weighing 6lb 5oz. Lucy, 32, returned to the hospital weeks later to thank surgeon Hooman Soleymani Majd. He recalled the emotional moment, saying, “It felt as if I had met him previously. It was a rare and very emotional experience for me.”
The cancer was discovered during a routine ultrasound when Lucy was 12 weeks pregnant. Doctors warned that delaying treatment until after birth could allow the cancer to spread, but her pregnancy was too far along for standard keyhole surgery. So Dr Soleymani Majd and his team proposed a bold alternative: temporarily remove the womb – still nurturing the baby – to access and treat the tumours on both ovaries.
The procedure came with considerable risk and has only been attempted a handful of times globally. This was Dr Soleymani Majd’s fourth such surgery in a decade and by far the most complex, as Lucy’s cancer had reached grade two, meaning it had spread beyond the ovaries.
Still, Lucy, a special needs teacher from Reading, and her husband Adam, 42, a musician and former The Voice contestant, placed their trust in the team. The surgery, which took place in October, was a success.
The operation involved a 15-person team, including three anaesthetists and five theatre nurses. Lucy’s womb remained connected to her uterine artery, fallopian tube, and cervix to preserve blood flow and oxygen supply to Rafferty. It was carefully wrapped in a warm, sterile saline pack, which was monitored and changed every 20 minutes to maintain Rafferty’s temperature.
After the tumour – confirmed to be grade two – was removed, the womb was placed back into Lucy’s body, and her abdomen was closed. In total, the womb remained outside her body for two hour – double the time of any similar procedure Dr Soleymani Majd had previously performed.
Despite having shown no symptoms, Lucy says she feels incredibly fortunate to have been diagnosed and treated in time. Ovarian cancer affects around 7,000 women annually in the UK, with over 4,000 deaths each year—largely due to late diagnosis.
Adding to the emotion of Rafferty’s birth is Adam’s own story. Just over a year earlier, in November 2022, he received a life-changing kidney transplant from a friend. “To finally hold Rafferty in our arms after everything we’ve been through was the most amazing moment,” he said.
Adam is now training to compete in the British Transplant Games in Oxford this July as a celebration of survival, strength, and the extraordinary journey their family has taken together.
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