How a newborn saved her mother from a near-fatal coma

A family in Concord, North Carolina is celebrating their daughter’s first birthday, and her mother’s second chance at life.

Last September Shelley Crawley, then 23, was rushed to hospital during her pregnancy and had to undergo an emergency C-section.

“I clearly remember lying on the stretcher to take me back to the operating room, and I was crying. I was telling the doctors I was scared that I wasn’t going to wake up from my surgery,” she told WCNC.

Her fear was justified. She delivered a healthy baby girl, Rylan via c-section but doctors grew concerned when the sedation began to take a strong hold of Crawley and she slipped into a coma.

“The doctors had done all they could and it was clear, they absolutely thought they were losing her at this point,” Crawley’s husband Jeremy, 35, told People Magazine.

That’s when nurse Ashley Manus had the brilliant idea to use Rylan to wake her mom up.

Using a method called “skin-to skin” contact, the nurse stripped the baby down and placed her on her mother’s chest.

“I was hoping somewhere deep down, Shelly was still there and could feel her baby, hear her baby and her mother’s instincts would come out and she would realize, ‘This is where I need to be.’” Manus told People.

After patiently waiting for Rylan to cry, the staff realized she was much to at ease with her mother to be distressed. They took matters into their own hands.

“We tickled her, we even pinched her. It took ten minutes and then she let out a wail,” Jeremy said.

The crying baby instantly showed a spike in her mother’s vitals on the monitor. Shelley was still there, still able to hear and feel Rylan.

It would take a full week before Shelley would be out of the coma completely and able to hold Rylan.

One year later and the whole family is happy and healthy, celebrating Rylan’s first birthday with glitter and friends.

Shelley Crawley says she will never forget that her daughter was her life line.

“I just look at her now and think of the amazing bond we have. I can tell her when she grows up that she saved my life,” she says.