Alyssa Bethencourt’s Channel 13 report out of Las Vegas centers on a story that feels almost impossible to process in real time: a mother says she was told, more than once, that her pregnancy was over, agreed to a surgical termination procedure based on that information, and then learned her baby was still alive.
The mother, Stacey Norris, describes the emotional whiplash in a way that doesn’t sound dramatic so much as stunned – like someone still trying to fit the pieces together without cutting herself on the edges. In Bethencourt’s telling, it begins with a hopeful pregnancy after infertility struggles and a previous miscarriage, and it ends with a child who is now three-and-a-half years old.
In between is a lawsuit, a state medical board investigation, and a chain of clinical decisions that Norris says still haunts her, even as she tries to focus on the daughter she once believed she had lost.
Hope After Loss, Then A Fast Turn Toward Fear
Bethencourt introduces Norris as a woman who didn’t treat this pregnancy casually, because she couldn’t afford to – not emotionally, not mentally, and not medically. After infertility and a prior miscarriage, Norris says learning she was pregnant again “felt like hope,” but it was the kind of hope you carry carefully, like a glass ornament you don’t want to drop.
She sought care at Women’s Health Associates of Southern Nevada, believing that a new medical team might mean a different outcome. Norris told Channel 13 she and her family were cautious, wanting to make sure things were truly stable before sharing news widely, because they knew how quickly early joy can turn into grief…