A mum whose heart stopped for 14 minutes has said she felt scared waking up to an empty tummy only to discover she had had a baby while medics did CPR.
Doctors at the Royal Stoke Hospital in Staffordshire resuscitated 30-year-old Natasha Sokunbi after she collapsed in an A&E waiting room 37 weeks pregnant.
The care support worker had to be put in a coma and didn’t meet her new daughter until three days after the delivery drama with the scare arising from a chest infection.
Ms Sokunbi had been three weeks away from her due date when she called 111 for help and was instructed to go to casualty, arriving at around 8am on December 3 after a 25-minute taxi ride.
The baby’s birth has been described as a ‘miracle’ with doctors saying it was rare for both mother and newborn to survive the situation.
And Ms Sokunbi said she had been ‘basically dead’ when medics ‘pulled’ her baby out.
She told The Sun: ‘My heart wasn’t beating when the doctors delivered Beau. I was basically dead when they pulled her out.
‘The doctors and the medical teams were amazing. We can never fully put what they’ve done for us into words.’
Speaking to the University Hospitals of North Midlands (UHNM), she added: ‘My first thought [after waking up] was where’s my kids. I didn’t know what gender baby I was having until my husband told me and showed me a photo of Beau.
‘Now I’m much more appreciative of life and won’t take anything for granted ever again.’
The ordeal saw Ms Sokunbi drift in and out of consciousness while doctors did CPR and she described feeling ‘confused’ and ‘in a lot of pain… like somebody stepping on my chest’.
Dr Andrew Bennett, Specialist Doctor in Emergency Medicine, 34, said: ‘Natasha is phenomenally lucky that she came to A&E. If it had happened anywhere else, the outcome would have been quite different.
‘It was simultaneously one of the most terrible things to see happen to a person and one of the proudest moments of my career to see so many people work together that quickly and deliver outstanding care.’
It comes as Ms Sokunbi said she couldn’t believe she had the baby until her husband showed her and photo and told her it was a girl.
Originally from the Welsh Valleys, the mum has had a defibrillator fitted to combat a genetic heart condition she had been treated for in the past but believed to be under control.
The life-saving procedure Ms Sokunbi underwent is called a resuscitative hysterotomy and typically involves a mask used to pump air into the patient’s lungs as well as zaps from a defibrillator.
It was estimated in a study last year the chance of both mother and baby surviving it could be as low as 4.5 per cent.
Dozens of staff across at least five departments were called in to perform the work as many were just about to clock off after a night shift.
Medics involved have since received the Chief Executive Award from University Hospitals of the North Midlands Trust.