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New mum 'who died for 11 minutes had no recollection of pregnancy or baby'

Hilary Wilson 'died' for 11 minutes while giving birth to Felix and woke four days later with no recollection of having a baby. Photo: Facebook

A British woman who 'died' for 11 minutes while giving birth to her son woke up four days later with no memory of ever being pregnant or having a baby.

Hilary Wilson, from Shropshire in England, suffered a complication during labour and went into cardiac arrest as she gave birth to son, Felix.

Doctors said the mother-of-two was clinically dead for 11 minutes.

She was given a 30 per cent chance of survival and an 85 per cent chance of brain damage but she defied grim odds and woke up four days later.

She had no memory, however, of being pregnant or giving birth to Felix just days earlier.

"When I woke up, my friends and family would talk to me about Felix, but I had no idea what they were on about," she told the UK Daily Mail.

"I was trying to make sense out of everything.

"I didn't know where I was or what had happened - I had no idea that I'd ever been pregnant or just had a baby.

"It wasn't until my sister showed me a picture of Felix that things very slowly started to fall into place."

In one of the photographs, Felix was wearing her older child's hand-me-down and it was only then that she felt the baby must be hers.

"I knew no one else would have one like it, so I thought it must have been mine," she said.


Ms Wilson and Felix were finally introduced six days later, but she still struggled to accept he was her baby.

"I didn't really feel like he was mine - I wasn't interested in holding him, and I was happy for my mum to give him cuddles instead of me," she explained.

"It wasn't until I was well enough to go back to the maternity ward and could breastfeed Felix that I really started to bond with him.

"Slowly vague memories of being pregnant and giving birth returned, and I gradually started to feel the instinct to look after him."

Ms Wilson had suffered a rare and dangerous amniotic fluid embolism, where amniotic fluid, hair or other matter from the foetus gets into the mother's blood stream and triggers an allergic reaction.

It can lead to seizures, coma and cardiac arrest, where electrical activity of the heart becomes chaotic.

Ms Wilson had been in labour for twelve hours when doctors decided to perform a C-Section.

She slipped into a cardiac arrest as Felix was being lifted out of the womb.

"They did CPR on me for 11 minutes and I had adrenaline injected into my heart," she told the Daily Mail.

Ms Wilson has made a remarkable recovery, and now she and little Felix are perfectly bonded.

She has applauded doctors who allowed her to breast feed using a pump while she lay unconscious, which she said started the initial bonding process.

"Now Felix and I have a wonderful relationship, and the whole ordeal almost feels like a dream," she said.

After a two-weeks in hospital, the pair were finally cleared to go home.

"It's made me realise how precious life is," she said.

National news break – April 21