On a cold December morning, Natasha Sokunbi had been fighting a persistent chest infection for weeks. The 30-year-old, 37 weeks along in her pregnancy, never imagined the dramatic turn her life would take when she called for medical advice. “I wasn’t feeling well for a couple of weeks because of a chest infection,” Natasha recalled, describing the events that led to her emergency. After being told to seek immediate medical attention, she headed to Royal Stoke University Hospital, not yet aware that both her life and her unborn child’s hung in the balance of an impending heart attack.
A Race Against Time
The situation changed rapidly for the worse after Natasha arrived at the hospital. “As I walked back into the waiting room, I collapsed and fell forward onto my baby bump,” she recalled. The heart attack had finally come. What followed was a flurry of teamwork and medical expertise as hospital staff worked to save the woman and her baby. One medical team performed CPR while another prepared for an emergency C-section delivery. Dr. Andrew Bennett, one of the first physicians on scene, explained: “The issue when you have a mother who goes into cardiac arrest is that you not only have the team required to resuscitate mum, you very quickly of course when the baby is out, also have a team ready to resuscitate the baby if that’s required. So the number of clinical teams involved is huge.”.
A Miracle in Minutes
Doctors, miraculously, managed to deliver baby Beau, weighing just 6lbs 7oz, four minutes after Natasha’s heart attacked took place. “My heart wasn’t beating when the doctors delivered Beau. I was basically dead when they pulled her out,” Natasha later recounted. For 14 minutes, Natasha remained clinically dead while medical teams worked to bring her back from her heart attack. Senior sister Alison Hopwell said it was “a rare event but it happened, and it happened on a very very busy December morning. The department was very busy; however, the whole team, too many to mention, from all specialties pulled together on that morning”.
A New Beginning
After being stabilized and subsequently put in a medically-induced coma, Natasha woke to an unexpected surprise. Her husband Ayo, who had rushed to the hospital after being brought up to speed by the hospital, shared the news that would change their lives forever. “The next thing I remember was when I woke up in intensive care and my husband walked over to me with a photo of Beau and said ‘it’s a girl'”. Three weeks of recovery and one ICD heart-starter device later, Natasha was able to return home to care for both Beau and her 15-month-old daughter Love. Reflecting on her extraordinary experience, she shared, “Beau is a miracle, and you can never fully put what they’ve done for us it into words. Now I’m much more appreciative of life and won’t take anything for granted ever again“. From a heart attack to a heart full of love, Natasha’s story is the feel-good story we all needed right now.
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