A baby diagnosed with several rare genetic conditions - and was predicted to be stillborn - has defied the odds is now expected to live "a fairly typical life". Acacia Beach, 26, was told throughout her pregnancy that her unborn child may have a multitude of rare conditions including Down's syndrome, a herniated brain and spina bifida. She was warned unborn Dani had a life expectancy of three weeks, one year and that she might be stillborn - and was even given the option of abortion. But young Dani Beach has defied the odds and is now six-months-old. She's hit every developmental milestone she has been set and is predicted to live "a fairly typical life". Acacia's ordeal began when she was three-month pregnant and began experiencing intense cramping and bleeding. She immediately rushed to the emergency room where she was told that her placenta had detached and that she could suffer a miscarriage. Acacia, a stay-at-home mum, was told to stay on bed rest for the weekend and was sent home by the ER doctors. The situation was incredibly traumatic for Acacia. She was forced to get a babysitter for her son and had to announce the miscarriage to her entire family. The following Monday, Acacia, who is now living near Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA, went to see an OBGYN, who told her she had been misdiagnosed. Acacia said: "She was completely blown away by the ER doctor's reaction. "I was overwhelmed with relief and confused, I was so frustrated with my ER doctor. I'm sure I'm not the first person he's told that to. It was a lot of emotional trauma." The OBGYN explained that Acacia's condition, the detached and later reattached placenta, was fairly common, and does not necessarily end in miscarriage. After her traumatic first visit, Acacia's pregnancy went by without a hitch until an anatomy scan revealed the baby had a distended forehead. This ignited several rounds of tests and probes, which could not reach a solid conclusion about the baby. "They explained that the baby had many deficits," Acacia said. She said that at this point no one was certain exactly what issues the baby as experiencing. Two main conditions where put forward, Edwards syndrome and Patau syndrome. Both syndromes occur in around 1 in 5,000 live births. The doctors also found a spinal abnormality, which they theorized could be Spina Bifida. Acacia's baby was given, separately either one year or three weeks to live, depending on which of the two conditions she had. Acacia was devastated. In a tragic moment, doctors also offered Acacia the option to abort. She added: "They gave us the option to abort without any conclusive answer on everything. It felt like the room they take you to to tell you your baby is going to die. "It seems ridiculous to me that they gave us the option of aborting without having an answer. "For us it was never an option, but that moment I could see why people would do it." Acacia finally got some peace when further tests revealed that the baby's brain was completely normal, with no herniation, and the spinal abnormality was minor. The sheer volume of incorrect predictions has shaken Acacia's confidence in the healthcare offered by her home state of North Carolina. She said: "I felt confident in my doctors at the time, but when we went to Wisconsin, a lot of the fear and confusion just went away." Finally, after months of uncertainty, Dani's condition was revealed to be the extremely rare, Apert syndrome, which affects one in every 600,000-800,000 American kids. Apert syndrome causes the fusing of the skull and bones in the hands and feet. After birth, some more operations had to be undergone in order to correct Dani's intestinal tract, but they were completed without too many issues. Acacia added: "Dani is now with us and she's become a happy, reasonably healthy and fittingly naughty young girl." While she suffers from some of the issues related to Apert syndrome, Dani has hit every milestone set out for a growing baby, and will likely live into her seventies. Acacia said: "She's so sassy, she really will tell you what she wants. She's just a giggley, smiley, happy baby. "As soon as you lock eyes with her she smiles at you, she's just really sweet and content." Watching her little girl, who seemed so close to death, at so many different times, thrive in a happy and loving household has given a new lease to Acacia. "I'm just speechless that I was brought down all the way to death and now it's just a couple of surgeries and therapy. I'm kind of mourning normalcy. "The fact that she's already had to endure so much, and people are already starting to stare and ask questions. I'm glad she's alive." The remaining treatment for the time being is one surgery and some physical and occupational therapy. "I'm so grateful we gave her a chance, she's been so strong and she's proven so many people wrong," Acacia said.
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