Pregnant mother from Shropshire told she had hours to live while on family holiday in Turkey

Tracy, who was already a mother-of-five, was rushed to hospital after blacking out to find not only was she expecting, but a second embryo had inplanted in her Fallopian tube in a condition called a heterotopic pregnancy.

Doctors found her Fallopian tube had burst and without an immediate operation she could have just hours to live.

The 40-year-old said: "They said they needed to operate and they gave me between half an hour and two hours left to live. It was poisoning my body and it was starting to shut down."

Tracy, from Stoke on Tern, near Market Drayton, had been on holiday in Turkey with husband Sean, 43, and her five children Gabrielle, Thomas, Chelsea, Dalton and Seana.

She was sure she was just suffering with typical holiday illnesses and had been taking medication for constipation, but was shocked to find out she was instead carrying twins.

The life-saving operation at Marmaris State Hospital was a success, and Tracy was thrilled to find the five-week-old unborn baby in her womb had also survived the invasive surgery.

But on her return home, the parents found that the surprises were not about to stop. During the 10 and 20-week scans, two more embryonic sacs were found and Tracy was delivered yet another piece of extraordinary news.

She said: "They found that I could have had one set of non-identical twins, and one set of identical twins."

After such a shocking experience, Tracy Allcock says she wants to raise awareness of the potential for complications during pregnancy.

The 40-year-old mum of six said she had no idea what a heterotopic pregnancy was, or an ectopic pregnancy, at the time she fell pregnant last year.

The heterotopic pregnancy is a multiple pregnancy with one embryo viably implanted in the uterus and the other inplanted elsewhere – an ectopic pregnancy.

This type of pregnancy does occur very rarely in natural conception, at the rate of 1 in 30,000 but it rises to up to 1 in 100 pregnancies in assisted reproduction.

Mrs Allcock said: "I really want to get across to people that I had already had five children and I didn't know what this was at the time.

"It is so serious. If the Fallopian tube bursts you can be left with just minutes. I really think people should really know what could happen because it is something that people don't understand.

"There are symptoms – we were told one was pain in the shoulder or chest – but I didn't have any of that."

Mrs Allcock only found out she waspregnant after falling ill on a family holiday to Turkey.

She had blacked out and her husband said she had no pulse and wasn't breathing. The family had to wake her using cold water and then rushed her to hospital.

"I really want people to be more aware of this," she said. "I didn't know anything about it and I think mums should be aware of what could happen.

"We had been on a long boat trip the day before – I was about three hours away.

"We were just so pleased it hadn't happened the day before because I wouldn't have had time to get back."

Jane Denton, Director of the Multiple Birth Foundation, described Mrs Allcock's case as "extraordinary".

She said: "It's rare for it to happen in a twin pregnancy, where one of the twins is an ectopic pregnancy in the fallopian tube – but its incredibly rare for it to happen with a quadruplet pregnancy.

"We have never heard of another case like this.

Tracy said she could not believe the news – she had been 39 at the time, taking the pill and the couple had no plans to extend their family.

The two embryonic sacs had no heartbeat and did not develop, and the parents feared for the safety of their remaining baby after warnings the chances of survival were slim.

When baby George was finally born at Telford's PRH in March, his parents were thrilled. Tracy said: "He is such a happy baby, always smiling."

A year after their family trip to Turkey, this summer the Allcocks returned to the same hotel and visited the surgeons and doctors that saved both George's life and her own.

Tracy said: "He is like a celebrity there, everyone loves him. All the hotel staff love him, and even the visitors that were there last year they all cuddle him and pay him so much attention."

She added: "He really is our little miracle. He held on through everything and I think that if he could do that he really wanted to be here for some reason."