{"id":276904,"date":"2025-11-07T08:34:23","date_gmt":"2025-11-07T08:34:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/276904\/"},"modified":"2025-11-07T08:34:23","modified_gmt":"2025-11-07T08:34:23","slug":"baby-boys-hand-severed-in-utero-due-to-extremely-rare-condition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/276904\/","title":{"rendered":"Baby boy\u2019s hand severed in utero due to extremely rare condition"},"content":{"rendered":"

Parents in County Durham<\/a> are expressing immense relief after their son arrived “happy and healthy”, despite the harrowing discovery during pregnancy<\/a> that his hand had been “severed” in the womb.<\/p>\n

Tom Noble, 30, a business development manager, and Faith Richmond, 33, a hairdresser, from Middleton St George, were initially “overjoyed” in August 2024 upon learning they were expecting, with early scans indicating “everything was fine”.<\/p>\n

However, a private gender scan at 15 weeks delivered devastating news: their baby boy was “missing his left hand”.<\/p>\n

Further tests confirmed a diagnosis of amniotic band syndrome, an extremely rare condition.<\/p>\n

The NHS<\/a> said this can occur when a baby kicks through the amniotic sac early in development, causing a band of tissue to form inside the womb, which the baby then gets caught up in.<\/p>\n

Doctors informed Mr Noble and Ms Richmond that such a band had “severed” their baby\u2019s left hand from the mid-forearm down.<\/p>\n

\"Baby<\/p>\n

Baby Ezra in the womb<\/p>\n

Following months of weekly monitoring scans to track his development, baby Ezra was safely born in April 2025.<\/p>\n

His parents are now “so relieved” and resolute that “nothing will ever hold him back”.<\/p>\n

In September 2025, Mr Noble completed the Great North Run to raise awareness about the condition and raised more than \u00a33,500 for Tommy\u2019s, the UK\u2019s leading pregnancy research charity.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re just so relieved that he\u2019s OK and he was born happy and healthy\u2026he could have had it so much worse, and he\u2019s not going to struggle in life, he\u2019ll find his own little way,\u201d Mr Noble said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis arm could make him an easy target when he is older, but by then he might have some kind of bionic arm that all the other kids are fascinated with!<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t want his arm to stop him from doing anything or achieving anything, and I\u2019m sure it won\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Baby<\/p>\n

Baby Ezra is \u2018happy and healthy\u2019<\/p>\n

Ms Richmond said getting the news their baby\u2019s hand was missing was \u201ca massive shock, like an out-of-body experience\u201d.<\/p>\n

Doctors explained that a band had \u201csevered\u201d his left hand from the mid-forearm and that he would not have felt any pain, as his \u201cpain receptors had not developed yet\u201d.<\/p>\n

After that, they had to go to hospital for scans every week.<\/p>\n

Ms Richmond said she \u201cmanaged to relax a little more\u201d after the 28-week mark and had \u201csuch a sense of relief\u201d, as she was told the chance of survival was higher if they made it past that point.<\/p>\n

Ezra was nearly delivered at 30 weeks because a band had wrapped around his feet.<\/p>\n

\"Tom<\/p>\n

Tom Noble, Faith Richmond and their baby Ezra<\/p>\n

Mr Noble explained: \u201cThe band was getting close to his face but he managed to untangle himself in the time it took for our doctors to consult another doctor.<\/p>\n

\u201cLuckily for us, he was an active baby.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ms Richmond was induced at 37 weeks, on 11 April.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was gorgeous, I loved it \u2013 he had jaundice and needed some incubation treatment, but other than that he was brilliant,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Ezra\u2019s parents now take him for an appointment every three months at The James Cook University Hospital to monitor his progress.<\/p>\n

\"Ezra<\/p>\n

Ezra has checks every three months<\/p>\n

\u201cHe gets X-rays<\/a>, and they check his back muscles because he\u2019s got two loose bones near his elbow,\u201d Ms Richmond explained.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything has been fine so far \u2013 we keep an eye on him to see if there is an infection where his fingers would be.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ezra is also on the list for prosthetics, and he has weekly swimming lessons, with Ms Richmond saying \u201cnothing can stop him\u201d.<\/p>\n

In September 2025, Mr Noble ran the Great North Run for Tommy\u2019s in around one hour and 50 minutes, and raised more than \u00a33,500.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cI put a lot of pressure on myself to do well.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really committed to the training, but when I actually got there, on the track, I just didn\u2019t care \u2013 I wanted to run my own race and try to enjoy it and the atmosphere.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Ms<\/p>\n

Ms Richmond says she hasn\u2019t been put off having more children<\/p>\n

He said he just wanted to raise money for Tommy\u2019s and awareness about the condition.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe also wanted to shout out another charity called LimbBo \u2013 they do pop-ups around the country for children and parents\u2026 and it\u2019d be nice to support them in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

Looking back on her experiences, Ms Richmond said: \u201cIt hasn\u2019t put me off having more children at all \u2013 I think if we have more kids, it might make me realise how hard this pregnancy was.\u201d<\/p>\n

To donate to Tom\u2019s fundraiser, visit:\u00a0 www.justgiving.com\/page\/thomas-noble-1.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Parents in County Durham are expressing immense relief after their son arrived “happy and healthy”, despite the harrowing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":276905,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[147161,147160,147158,97,252,253,147162,147159,147157],"class_list":["post-276904","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health-care","tag-baby-ezra","tag-business-development-manager","tag-faith-richmond","tag-health","tag-health-care","tag-healthcare","tag-mr-noble","tag-ms-richmond","tag-tom-noble"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276904","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=276904"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276904\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/276905"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=276904"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=276904"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=276904"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}