Pictured: Mother told by doctor she'd miscarried proudly shows off her healthy newborn baby

Seven weeks into her pregnancy Catherine Kent was told the heartbreaking news that she had again miscarried.

Devastated, Catherine and her partner, Kevin Gray, were told she could have an abortion.

However, she decided to allow nature to take its course and spent the next month waiting for the foetus to be delivered naturally.

But when nothing happened they returned to Sunderland Royal Hospital where doctors discovered that the baby was, in fact, still alive.

Proud parents Catherine Kent and Kevin Gray are overjoyed with their newborn daughter Leona-Lee after doctors misdiagnosed a miscarriage

Now, a week after being born by Caesarian section, Leona-Lee has finally left hospital and is at home with her parents.

'I couldn't believe it when they said our baby was still alive,' said Catherine, 27. 'My mind was all over the place.

'I cried and kept asking, "Are you sure, are you sure?"'

The drama began during a family holiday to Berwick-upon-Tweed last September. Three days after Catherine discovered she was pregnant she began to bleed.

Fearing the worst she and Kevin drove straight to Sunderland Royal Hospital.

Although a pregnancy test showed she was still pregnant an ultrasound scan carried out the following day apparently showed she had lost the baby.

Catherine said: 'I was told by the nurse that I could either take two pills which would speed up the miscarriage process, or be put under general anaesthetic to have the baby removed, or let nature take it's course.'

She and Kevin, 28, from Houghton-le-Spring, Tyne and Wear, chose to wait and were told it would take two weeks for the miscarriage to happen naturally.

But when nothing happened Catherine, a full-time mother, waited a further two weeks before returning to hospital once more.

'My instincts began telling me that I was still pregnant,' she said yesterday.

'I had the morning sickness and I just 'felt' pregnant again.

'I went back to Sunderland Hospital for another check up and told them my concerns. I saw a different nurse this time and had yet another ultrasound scan.

Newborn Leona-Lee is lucky to be alive

'When I turned to the monitor and looked at the screen, I could make out a shape swimming about in the black and white lines.

'My baby was alive.'

Leona-Lee was eventually born last week, weighing a healthy 6lb 9oz.

And although delighted, her parents, who have two other children, now wonder what might have happened had they decided to abort their healthy baby.

'What if I had taken the tablets they offered me?' said Catherine. 'They could have left my baby severely disabled, or it could have died?

'They could've aborted my baby while it was alive. How can the hospital make a mistake like that?

'How many other people have taken the tablets or had an abortion when their baby was alive all the time?

'The nurse should have got another doctor to check me properly after the first ultrasound scan.

'You can't just rule a baby’s life out without getting it double-checked.'

She said she suffered depression in the weeks after being told that her baby was dead and even contemplated suicide.

City Hospitals Sunderland NHS Trust has since launched an inquiry into the matter.

Kevin, 28, who is currently unemployed, said: 'When we went back to the hospital and they said the baby was alive we just broke down. We couldn't believe it.

'Because we thought for a while that the baby had died it made the pregnancy a hundred times worse because of the stress.

'Now she is as healthy as anything. We are so happy.'

But he added: 'A couple of years ago Catherine was told she had a miscarriage and we had that baby removed. Now we wonder if it could have been alive too.

'I would say to people, "Don't give up, get a second opinion."'