Big Miracles mum Sheila, 49, reveals terrifying medical emergency after ‘freak of nature event’
Updated . First published
Big Miracles star Sheila Vijeyarasa thought she’d made it through her pregnancy “without a bump in the road”, until a health scare meant she needed emergency surgery at 29 weeks.
Sheila, 49, who is expecting her second child with husband, Tyson Salijevic, 50, said she spent three nights in hospital and lost 30 per cent of her blood from a random freak-of-nature event.
Sheila shared photos from her time in hospital, pictured here with husband Tyson and son Phoenix. Instagram/@sheila_v__
“Last Sunday, what started as a beautiful high tea with dear friends ended with an ambulance ride, three nights in hospital, the loss of 30 per cent of my blood (through a nosebleed), and emergency surgery at 29 weeks pregnant,” Sheila shared on social media.
After initially being treated at hospital, Sheila had to return for further tests after the nosebleed returned.
“The medical team was doing everything possible to avoid surgery, and I was desperately hoping they could,” she said.
“But the bleeding wouldn’t stop.”
Doctors diagnosed her with a “major posterior nosebleed from the sphenopalatine artery”, a random freak-of-nature event that required emergency surgery.
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“I remember sobbing as I spoke to the anaesthetist. No pregnant woman in her third trimester wants to hear the words ‘major surgery’ and ‘general anaesthetic.’ Sheila said.
Thankfully, the surgery was a success with Sheila telling her followers her baby is doing well.
She also said she had done a lot of reflecting during her three nights in hospital.
“The lesson I learned this week was sometimes you need to stop, or the universe will make us, and it won’t be comfortable,” she said.
“As someone who likes to plan, achieve and control outcomes, this experience has reminded me how little control we actually have.”
Sheila and Tyson smiled through the scary curveball for a selfie. Instagram/@sheila_v__
She said she’d been resting and recovering since the scary experience and was incredibly grateful for the work of medical staff.
She ended with a message to her soon-to-be-born second child: “Thank you to my little peanut in my belly who has already taught me so many lessons.”
Sheila and Tyson announced they were expecting again in March, using the same egg donor as with their first child, two-year-old Phoenix.
Sheila and Tyson welcomed Phoenix in April 2024 after an extensive IVF journey. Instagram/@sheila_v__
The couple documented their journey to having a child together on the show Big Miracles.
Having taken the couple until their mid-40s to find each other, having children was a struggle.
At first, the couple proceeded with IVF with eggs that Sheila had frozen in her 30s.
But when they learned those eggs were not viable, they let go of the idea of using Sheila’s biological eggs and looked overseas for an egg donor.
After selecting one from the US, Sheila had to undergo hormone therapy to get her body ready to sustain a pregnancy.
The couple went through the entire process again to have their second child.
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