Unborn Child Starved From Mom's Extreme Weight Loss Surgery

Holly Emms, 25, didn't realize her body was starving her unborn daughter until it was too late.

Emms underwent gastric bypass surgery without realizing she was in the early stages of pregnancy. At this time, according to the Daily Mail, she weighed 18 stone (252 pounds) and doctors recommended the surgery for health reasons. In only four months she lost half her previous weight, dropping to 126 pounds and fitting into a size 8 dress. But, as the Daily Mail reports, she paid the ultimate price:

"I held my little girl and she died in my arms. I was devastated with grief.

"The doctors told me Juli had died because of my extreme weight loss during pregnancy, it was a terrible thing to hear and something I have to live with."

Emms said that she didn't not receive a pregnancy test from doctors before the operation. She didn't really realize anything was wrong until six weeks after the surgery when she couldn't keep food down normally. She was 10 weeks pregnant she was finally tested:

"I am angry at the doctors and myself for not thinking of doing a pregnancy test," she said.

"Nobody offered me one and I never thought of it.

"I wish with all my heart that I had because I wouldn't have gone ahead with the operation.There is always a chance, however small, that a woman could be pregnant."

At this point, Daily Mail reports, Emms was not getting the nutrients the baby needed but she herself was too weak to endure another operation to reverse the surgery that separated her stomach into two parts.

Doctors say Juli most likely died from a micronutrient deficiency. Gastric bypass patients usually have vitamin deficiency themselves.

A spokeswoman from Imperial College Healthcare NHS, which runs Charing Cross Hospital where Emms' surgery was performed, said female patients have to sign a consent form agreeing to avoid pregnancy for two years to "minimize complications like maternal malnutrition, miscarriage and premature, or underweight, birth.

Juli was born 15 weeks premature and weighed 1.9 pounds. Julie was born in May but Emms said she was too grieved to speak about the death until now.