Why Shropshire mum and baby are lucky to be alive

Shropshire mum Emma Wilkes today said she and her baby daughter Taylor are "lucky to be alive" after a horror pregnancy condition nearly claimed both their lives.

Mrs Wilkes, from Whitchurch, said doctors at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital had safely delivered her newborn then battled to keep Mrs Wilkes alive when a freak condition threatened to turn the situation into a nightmare.

Mrs Wilkes, 30, and baby Taylor are now back home and doing well.

At the maternity ward on July 24 Mrs Wilkes was struck down with amniotic fluid embolism - a rare and usually fatal condition that affects about one in 80,000 pregnancies.

It happens when some of the amniotic fluid, which nourishes and protects the foetus in the womb, enters the mother's bloodstream, causing the body to shut down.

Mrs Wilkes went to hospital 33-and-a-half weeks' pregnant with bleeding complications, which failed to settle down despite treatment. Just as baby Taylor was being delivered Mrs Wilkes' heart stopped.

She had to be resuscitated and lost a litre of blood.

Doctors then treated her for the embolism and she was admitted to the intensive care ward, where she made a recovery and was reunited with baby Taylor.

Mrs Wilkes said: "It's incredible to think I'm back home already after my heart stopped in the hospital.

"They had to give me manual heart compressions and deliver Taylor by Caesarean section, so the little one and I are lucky to be here.

Mrs Wilkes, who is also mum to Georgia, three, Harriett, seven and Lauren, nine, added: "I really wanted to thank the doctors, nurses and staff who saved us because no-one really survives amniotic fluid embolism.

"In particular I wanted to say thanks to Mr Bernie Bentick and Mr Tapp because they saved my life."

Husband Matthew said doctors who treated his wife told him they had never encountered the condition before.

By Tom Johannsen