Mum stuns doctors by waking from coma when newborn touches her
A mum has left doctors stunned by waking up from a 23-day coma the moment her newborn son was placed in her arms.
Amanda da Silva, 28, was 37 weeks pregnant when rushed to hospital suffering from an acute epileptic seizure in February.
Doctors performed an emergency caesarean while she was sedated and placed her in a medically induced coma due to complications.
After 23 days in a coma, an intensive care nurse decided to put baby Victor in his mother’s arms and she woke up, not realising that she had given birth.
“The first thing I remember was having Victor in my arms, seeing his little head and smelling his lovely scent,” Amanda, a married mum-of-three and housewife said of the reunion in March.
“It was an amazing situation but at the same time confusing.
“I asked my dad if the baby was mine. I put my hand on my belly and realised I was no longer pregnant.”
The 2.1 kilogram baby, named Victor, was born with a weak immune system and respiratory problems due to his mother’s epilepsy medication taken during pregnancy.
He was sent straight to neonatal care without any maternal contact where he stayed for six days before going to a semi-intensive care unit.
After 23 days in a coma, Nurse Sá took the mother’s arms and wrapped them around her son, helping her to cradle him on her chest.
“Her response was immediate,” Nurse Sá, an intensive care (ICU) nurse at Ceara’s Assis Chateubriand Maternity Hospital (MEAC) in Fortaleza, north east Brazil said.
“We never expected such a quick change and everyone in the medical team wept with happiness and relief.”
To everyone’s surprise the moment the baby was placed ‘skin to skin’, the unconscious patient’s heart rate quickened, and she started crying and producing milk.
“As soon as Amanda felt the touch of the baby’s skin on hers, tears started pouring down her cheeks. It was a cry of love,” Nurse Sá said.
Twenty days after, mother and son were well enough to be discharged.
The unusual case is being studied by medical professionals to assess the importance of this type of intervention when a post-natal woman is in a serious medical state.
