Articles labeled: brighton

The tale of Haleigh Poutre is an amazing one. She suffered a massive head injury in 2005 and remained in a vegetative state for two years. And just when doctors were about to recommend she be taken off life support in December 2007, she started to breath on her own and regained consciousness and was able to give police startling details about what may have put her in the coma in the first place.

Interviewed in her bedroom at Franciscan Hospital for Children, Haleigh communicated to investigators that her adoptive mother and stepfather, Holli and Jason Strickland, regularly used physical discipline, such as spanking her or slapping her in the face.

When asked about being hurt during her childhood, she did not directly say anything about the weekend in September 2005 when she lapsed into a coma. Prosecutors have described her adoptive mother as the harshest of her abusers, but Haleigh expressed to police largely fond feelings toward Holli Strickland, who took care of the girl since she was 4.

In another key development in the case, Haleigh’s younger sister, Samantha Poutre, 11, has given police a new statement this year about how Haleigh suffered her traumatic brain injury, the sources said. She told police that Haleigh was kicked down the stairs in an episode involving Holli and Jason Strickland. Samantha had previously told police that Haleigh may have hurt herself practicing a back flip and accidentally hitting her head on a basement pipe, defense lawyers have said.

Jill Hawkins, a woman from Brighton, England, appears to be going for a record number of surrogate births. She has already been the surrogate mother for seven — count em, SEVEN — babies and is planning the eighth. Unlike some surrogacies, all the children are genetically hers. It would seem like an emotional roller coaster to “give up” so many of your children — how does she do it? The answer is that she simply doesn’t want the baby she’s carrying. She has no desire to have children of her own (er, you know what we mean) and does it all for “[her] couple”, certainly a fascinating mindset that many parents would not be able to comprehend.

The babies conceived by Ms. Hawkins have all been her own genetic children but she says she has never wanted to keep them.

“I am not giving up something I want, which people can’t understand,” she said.

“I am not saying it doesn’t hurt - of course it does - and I do feel very emotional about it and I care very deeply about the baby.”

Her first child, Lucy, is nearly 16. She was followed by Bertie, Jamie, David, Sam, Alexandra and Isobel.