Grenfell's youngest victim: Couple lose their unborn baby

Grenfell's youngest victim: Couple lose their unborn baby

A heroic husband who saved his family from the 21st floor of Grenfell Tower has suffered new heartache after his wife lost their unborn baby boy.

IT manager Marcio Gomes gave doctors the go-ahead to deliver his wife Andreia's baby on the night the doomed high-rise in London went up in flames.

The baby's heart had stopped beating after Mrs Gomes had fallen into a coma after inhaling the thick, toxic smoke inside the flats as the fire raged.

Faced with the possibility of an infection spreading through his unconscious wife's body, Mr Gomes made the gut-wrenching call and the boy was delivered a stillborn while. 

Hours earlier, he had wrapped her and their two girls Luana and Megan in wet towels and led them through t he raging inferno to safety.

Marcio Gomes pictured with his pregnant wife Andreia and two daughters Megan and Luana

Mr Gomes told the Sunday Telegraph: 'I was holding him, he looked peaceful, like a baby that was just sleeping. I wanted to be there with him but he had already died.' 

The heartbroken husband was the one who had to tell his wife they had lost their baby when she woke up.

Initially, Mrs Gomes did not want to talk about it, but a day later she went to see her boy, whom they had already named Logan Isaac, and her husband said she 'didn't want the baby to go away'.

Megan, 10, and Luana, 12, had already worked out a sleeping arrangement for their baby brother, who was due in two months time, and their father said it had hit them just as hard.  

The Gomes family enjoying a day at the beach

Logan Isaac was delivered just after 11pm and just less than 24 hours earlier, heroic Mr Gomes led his wife and their two daughters to safety when the flames engulfed their block of flats in the early hours of the morning.

Marcio Gomes, 38, wrapped his family in wet towels after being left stranded on the 21st floor of Grenfell Tower in White City, London, as flames surged upwards.

When the blaze reached his apartment, he knew it was up to him to save his family's life so he negotiated the scorched stairways with his loved ones, stepping over bodies on their way down. 

But when he reached the lower levels, horror struck as he realised his eldest daughter 12-year-old Luana had not made it all the way down.

She had been rendered unconsciou s by the smoke and poisonous fumes on the stairwell, and Mr Gomes left his wife Andreia and 10-year-old Megan and ran back into the roaring fire to drag Luana to safety. 

He said: ‘She was halfway down. She had stopped. She couldn’t move anymore and had fallen unconscious,’ he told The Sun.

Firefighters rushing up the stairwell were reportedly so disorientated that Mr Gomes had to tell them where they were in the building. 

Marcio Gomes had the agonising task of waiting for his wife to wake from a coma before telling her they had lost their baby

In this image taken by eyewitness Gurbuz Binici, a huge fire engulfs the 27-storey Grenfell Tower in Latimer Road, White City, where Mr Gomes ran back in

The devastation left behind as Grenfell Tower continued to smoulder more than a day after the fire started  

Amazingly, they managed to reach Luana and bring her down to safety.

Tthe whole family were taken to hospital and were treated for smoke inhalation

Mrs Gomes, who was seven months pregnant, was put into a medically-induced coma in an attempt to help her and the unborn child recover, but tragically only she came round.

As he recovered in hospital, Mr Gomes told reporters how he had defied an emergency call handler’s instructions to stay put and ushered his family to safety after waiting two hours for help.

The IT manager was told by an operator that firefighters were unable to reach their apartment â€" located near the very top of the building.

Aftermath of fire at 27-storey Grenfell Tower on Latimer Road in White City

Smoke rushed through the door as the family left their flat, stepping blindly over bodies in a desperate bid to escape.

‘I just wrapped them all up in wet towels and sheets and said, “There’s no turning back â€" we have to go”.

‘We had to go down the stairs from the 21st floor. You couldn’t see anything. 

'We had to step over bodies with my young daughters and my seven months pregnant wife.’

The death toll currently stands at 80 after the blaze ripped through Grenfell Tower on the West Lancaster estate in White City, but police fear the figure will rise.

People have been pointing the blame at those responsible for the safety of the building, which had been refu rbished with cladding last year. 

Many residents said they did not hear a fire alarm sounding, and the Gomes family only found out about the roaring blaze at 2.30am - nearly an hour and a half after it started. 

Mr Gomes was told the fire was being contained after phoning 999 a number of times. 

He said:  'I told them my wife was pregnant and that we couldn’t go down â€" there was too much smoke.

'But they wouldn’t send anyone up. By 4.30am the flames had roared up the side of the block. Fire engulfed the whole building.'

This is when he knew he had to save his family himself.

When asked about fire safety in the tower block, which has been called into question by residents for years, he said: 'It was a shambles.'

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