Sunday MIRROR – The bustling operating theatre fell silent. Doctors and nurses stared at each other, stunned.
And, as he stood at his wife’s bedside and looked into the eyes of his newborn child for the first time, new father Francis Tshibangu’s joy turned to disbelief.
“I was clutching Arlette’s hand as they lifted Daniel from her,” Francis says.
“He was covered in blood… but then I saw his skin was white and his hair was blond. My jaw dropped open.”
In a million-to-one quirk of nature, Francis and Arlette, who have no white relations, had given birth to a white baby.
The genetic mix-up has baffled experts, who say Daniel is NOT an albino with no skin pigment – not to mention the parents, who already have a two-year-old black son, Seth. Francis adds: “My first thought was ‘Wow, is he really mine?’ “I was too stunned to speak and I could see the doctors looking at each other, thinking the baby couldn’t be mine.
“Then Arlette and I looked at each other and smiled and I knew he was. “I have been with my wife for three years so there was never a question of infidelity, but seeing his white skin was a surprise to say the least.