'I was declared clinically dead - then woke up to discover I'd given birth'

A new mum was clinically dead for 14 minutes as she collapsed while pregnant - before later waking to discover she'd given birth to her daughter. Natasha Sokunbi was almost ready to pop at 37 weeks when she was struck with chest pains and difficulty breathing on December 3. After calling 111, she was advised to go to A&E where she collapsed, going into cardiac arrest. Medics at Royal Stoke University Hospital battled to revive the 30-year-old and her unborn baby, rushing her into surgery where daughter Beau was delivered via an emergency C-section. Thanks to their tireless efforts over 30 minutes of resuscitation, Natasha became stable and was able to be placed in an induced coma.

She woke the following day to learn she had given birth a baby girl, weighing 6lbs and 7oz. Natasha, who along with husband Ayo, 29, had chosen to wait to learn the baby's sex, said it was a "complete surprise". "My heart wasn't beating when the doctors delivered Beau," Natasha, a support worker from Stafford, said. "I was basically dead when they pulled her out. One team of medics were delivering her via C-section while another team performed CPR on me.

“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’." Beau remained on a neonatal unit for several days, in which time doctors told Natasha she had been "clinically dead" for 14 minutes. “They saved my baby and they saved me,” she said. She added that day was a blur, but that she remembered being in pain during the C-section then "everything going black". Ayo then rushed to the hospital after getting the call, staying by her side.

The new mum spent a total of three weeks in hospital and had an ICD heart-starter device fitted to prevent her suffering another cardiac arrest in the future. The mum-of-two is now back home and looking after Beau and her 15-month-old daughter, Love. “Beau is a miracle, and you can never fully put what they’ve done for us it into words," she said. "The staff were all fantastic. Now I’m much more appreciative of life and won’t take anything for granted ever again.”.

Medics and nurses who treated Natasha and Beau have since been given a Chief Executive Award in recognition. Dr Andrew Bennett, who was one of the first doctors to treat Natasha, said: “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.