Rajashree’s son, Prathamesh, was completing his master’s degree in Germany when he was diagnosed with brain cancer and underwent surgery in 2013. However, before he started treatment, the unmarried engineering student had semen samples stored.
Prathamesh seemed to be doing well after completing chemotherapy and radiotherapy, but the cancer returned in 2016 and he passed away months later. Before his death, Prathamesh put his mom and sister in charge of his preserved semen — and Rajashree realized it was the perfect opportunity to get “her son back.”
More from CafeMom: Baby Is Born ‘Pregnant’ With His Own Twin Brother Due to Rare Medical Condition However, doctors determined that 49-year-old Rajashree wasn’t a candidate for IVF. Instead, a 35-year-old relative offered to be a surrogate and she was inseminated with an anonymous egg donor’s fertilized eggs. The surrogate gave birth to twins on Monday and Rajashree plans to raise the boy and girl as her own. “I was carrying the soul of my son in me and was looking for a body to breathe it into,” Rajashree said, according to Kidspot. “Doctors had preserved my son’s semen before they commenced cancer treatment to preempt any negative effects of the medicine used on him. Due to this I have been able to get my son back.”
More from CafeMom: This Woman Switched Birth Control & Ended Up Pregnant With Triplets According to the Daily Mail, Prathamesh’s sister has been supportive of their mom’s quest to use his sperm. Rajashree also only wants to be known as mom and not grandma to these little ones. “Getting the semen into our custody was not easy and we faced a lot of hurdles. Money and time were serious issues but now I will take the responsibility of these infants,” Rajashree said, according to the Daily Mail. “I am their mother now.” Dr. Supriya Puranik, head of IVF department at Sahyadri Hospital, is happy to have been able to help this family “relive moments of happiness” through new science. “At hospitals, we often see a lot of emotions and happiness whenever a woman delivers a baby and we have come to share in their moments of joy. But in this case it was a grief-stricken mother whose son was away for studies when he came down with the fatal disease and succumbed to it,” Puranik said according to the Daily Mail. “We appreciate the kind of spirit she has shown throughout the process and congratulate her on having her son back in the form of these healthy twin babies.”
