“Should they send me away without the baby, I will set up a tent outside the Alexandras Hospital and stay there. I am not leaving without the baby,” says 40-year-old Sevasti, the wife of Manolis, the paleochristian who has become a father again.
The last time we saw her was in the cave in mountainous Corinthia, the place the couple had chosen to live with their children, away from civilization, isolated from the world. “I did not disappear; I protected myself and my children. We are not disturbing anyone,” she told Mega.
She managed to remain undiscovered until last week, when she had to be rushed to the hospital in very bad condition. She had completed 42 weeks of pregnancy and was experiencing uncontrollable bleeding. “They gave me blood transfusions. They told me that if I had come 10 minutes later, I would have died.”
Sevasti gave birth to her fifth child a week ago. It is a girl weighing almost 4 kilograms. However, both mother and baby were at risk of not surviving because Sevasti had decided to give birth at home alone, with the help of only a midwife, without any prenatal care, despite having a history of four cesarean sections.
Seeing his wife bleeding uncontrollably, Manolis decided to seek help.
“We had some trouble because there were complications. The wife wanted to try to give birth at home; it was not possible. We brought her to the hospital urgently. She didn’t want it, but there are many times when a person’s beliefs clash with what needs to be done. It was a difficult situation for me,” he said.
The doctors did everything possible to keep both mother and baby alive. Sevasti was immediately taken to surgery. Ultimately, Sevasti and the baby survived, with the doctors saving her despite the demands of her husband and herself regarding supposed alteration of her DNA with blood transfusions and any assistance to the baby with injectable medications.
The baby, Anna as they have decided to name her, continues to be hospitalized in the neonatal unit, with doctors still cautious about her progress.
After this incredible ordeal, a social worker met with Sevasti and it was decided that the baby would remain in the hospital until the conditions in which she would live the rest of her life were assessed, a decision with which the couple disagrees.
“We are fine, both me and the baby. We are leaving our problems behind. The hospital’s social service did not behave as it should have… They interrogated a person who was in a state of shock,” Sevasti said, adding that her husband saved her life.
The couple claims that they now live with their children in an area of Attica, close to nature, but not in a cave like the one in mountainous Corinthia, isolated once again from civilization.
