Miracles Do Happen

Mom dies, gives birth, then is revived -- and they're both fine








Clinically dead mom gives birth



Source: CNN





STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Teacher Erica Nigrelli passed out in a classroom; teachers did CPR, used a
  defibrillator
  
• Nigrelli's heart had stopped, and doctors delivered her baby by C-section
  
• Doctors then revived Nigrelli; later she learned she had a heart condition
  
• Today, baby and mother are well; couple credits quick-acting teachers
  

(CNN) -- Three-month-old Elayna Nigrelli has redefined what
it means to be a miracle baby. She was born while her mother was technically
dead.

In February, Erica Nigrelli was
teaching at a high school in Missouri City, Texas, when she walked into a
co-worker's classroom.

Nigrelli said she felt faint,
placed her hands on a table to steady herself and then passed out.

Three teachers immediately
grabbed a defibrillator and also began performing CPR. Kids in the classroom ran
out, yelling for help.

Nigrelli's husband, Nathan, also
a teacher, was just two doors down. He rushed into the room.

"Erica was lying on the floor,
she was foaming and making gurgling sounds and just staring up," he told CNN affiliate KPRC.

He called 911.

"My wife is pregnant," he said,
his breath heavy with panic. "She's having a seizure! The baby's due in three
weeks!"

"Oh my God!" the 911 operator
exclaimed.

By the time paramedics rushed
the 32-year-old to the hospital, doctors could not find a pulse. Her heart had
stopped.

Doctors delivered the baby by
emergency cesarean section.

Technically, it was a postmortem
delivery because Erica's heart was not beating.

But then something remarkable
happened. The doctors turned to Erica, and soon her heart started beating
again.

3-D printer
helps save dying baby

Over the next five days, she
remained in a medically induced coma, she told CNN, and doctors diagnosed her
with a heart defect she didn't know she had -- hypertrophic
cardiomyopathy. The condition causes the heart muscle to thicken. The
thickening can make it more difficult for blood to leave the heart, forcing it
to work harder to pump blood.

Baby Elayna was in the intensive
care unit for two weeks.

On Friday, the couple appeared
with her on CNN's "Early Start," with Elayna on Mom's lap, sucking on a purple
pacifier. She weighs 8 pounds and is healthy.

"We feel great," Nathan Nigrelli
said. "We have a wonderful baby. My wife is back to 100%.

The baby hasn't shown any signs
of trouble but is still on oxygen. The child will undergo therapy soon, but by
all accounts her recovery looks to be on track and she'll be fine.

Erica Nigrelli believes that God
was protecting her. She told CNN that she has a memory of being in the
ambulance. "I remember being bounced up," she said. And she remembers seeing
sunlight.

When she came to in the
hospital, she remembers the doctors telling her, "You have your baby. She is in
the hospital."

She saw Elayna three weeks after
she was born.

The two joked that if Elayna
ever gets out of line, all her parents have to do is remind their daughter what
they went through to bring her into the world.

"I have got, like, the best
ammunition for the rest of her life," Erica Nigrelli laughed. "She can never do
anything wrong."