An expectant Brazilian woman says doctors stole her newborn baby girl from her womb after she woke up from a C-section and told her that her pregnancy was purely "psychological".
Kitchen assistant Layane Santos, 19, said she was 38 weeks pregnant when she was rushed to Santa Casa de Maua maternity hospital in Sao Paulo in December.
Suffering with abdominal pain and blood loss, she passed out after receiving anesthetic and woke up hours later.
But instead of being greeted by her newborn baby daughter, doctors said they had found no trace of a baby in her womb and believed she had endured a "phantom pregnancy".
Santos claimed that nurses had previously recorded the growing size of her baby and measured its fetal heart beats, reports Tribuna Hoje.
An ultra-sound scan the week before her C-section revealed her to be carrying a baby girl - who she had already named Sofia - who weighed 7lbs and measured 42cm, she added.
Santos, who is married to Lourival Alves, 28, told Tribuna Hoje, "My husband told me what the doctors had said, and I became hysterical with despair and cried.
"I asked about the doctor, I wanted to speak with him because I had entered the hospital with a baby inside me but I was leaving without one,” she said. “I can't believe a child who weighed 7lbs could just disappear in blood. I think they stole the baby, or the baby died while she was being delivered and they didn't want to tell us what happened."
Leila Salomao, the couple's attorney, said they are seeking to gain access to hospital records detailing the incident.
Uesley Lima, the doctor involved in Santos' pre-natal treatment, has also said she will be a witness for the couple if a criminal case is brought against the hospital.
A spokesman for the hospital said exams performed before the "delivery" proved she was not carrying a baby.
But he added that they "reserved the right to only present these exams at the opportune moment."
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