Kough, 39, had undergone a bilateral salpingectomy after her third child.
Elizabeth Kough was absolutely shocked when she stared down at a positive pregnancy test, considering she’d had both her fallopian tubes removed years earlier.
Kough, 39, had undergone a bilateral salpingectomy after her third child, but last year she noticed she was having symptoms that felt like a pregnancy. She now has a healthy newborn son.
“I couldn't fit into my pants and generally didn't feel really good,” Kough told InsideEdition.com. “It felt like before when I was pregnant.”
For the Missouri mom, the idea caused fear because she knew getting pregnant with no fallopian tubes could be life-threatening, and that the embryo could be in the abdominal cavity. She took a home pregnancy test, which came back positive.
Kough headed to the emergency room with her boyfriend and she was referred to Meritas Health in North Kansas City.
What doctors said next left her astounded.
“He did the ultrasound and said, 'It’s in your uterus. I don’t understand what the issue is,'" Kough said. "And I’m looking around the room. I totally had this procedure so I felt like they didn’t believe me.”
Once the mom pulled her medical records, however, they confirmed Kough had the surgery and getting pregnant was an extreme anomaly.
“The only way to get pregnant after having both fallopian tubes removed is IVF,” Dr. Dawn Heizman, a board-certified OB-GYN at Meritas Health, told InsideEdition.com.
Heizman said she had never seen a case like Kough’s.
The only theory Heizman said would make sense was that an egg traveled through a small opening where Kough’s fallopian tube would have been and was able to implant into her uterus.
Kough said she was happy about the pregnancy once the reality settled in. Although it was a high-risk, she said her pregnancy was smooth overall. In March, Benjamin arrived, a completely healthy baby boy.
“I had a planned cesarean and the doctor went in and checked for tubes and there was nothing there,” Kough said.
“So she peeked around the corner and she told me the [initial] surgery had been done properly and I would need to use another form of birth control, which I thought was funny.”
Kough said the birth of her son was a huge surprise, but one she is thankful for.
“Everybody knows that in life ... things are unexpected. You definitely don’t know what’s around the corner at all times,” she said. “I think for me this was a big reminder, but for me, this is a very happy story.”
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