'She Saved My Life': Mother Is Awakened From A Coma By Her Newborn Baby

September 16, 2015

For Shelly and Jeremy Cawley, what should have been one of the happiest moments of their lives took a near fatal turn.

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Shelly went in for an emergency C-section and doctors had to put her under. After several hours, they were getting worried that Shelly hadn't woken up.

The couple's newborn daughter, Rylan, was resting safely a few floors away in the same hospital.

"I was a mess. I was numb. I didn't know what to think anymore," Jeremy told People. "The doctors had done all they could and it was clear, they absolutely thought they were losing her at this point."

It wasn't until nurse Ashley Manus, a big proponent of skin-to-skin contact, stripped Rylan down and gently put her on her mother's chest that everything changed.

"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 said.

Incredibly, it worked!

Jeremy says the bond for Ryland was instant, and she fell right asleep on her mom. She was so content the doctors had to make her cry so that Shelly would hear her baby.

"We could see a spike in her vitals on the monitor. We knew that somewhere in there she was hearing her baby. Rylan saved her mom's life," Manus said.

It would be another week before Shelly came out of the coma completely and could hold her baby for the first time. Both mom and baby were fine, with no complications from the ordeal.

It's been a year since Shelly's miraculous recovery, and this past weekend, the family celebrated Rylan's first birthday.

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"I’m still here because of her, and I just can’t wait to tell her that. I can’t wait to tell her that she saved my life."