Mum saves baby with CPR after middle of the night 'gut feeling'
A mum has revealed how she was able to save her baby's life by performing CPR after she woke up with a "gut feeling" something wasn't right.
Lucy Robin, 35, from London, found her 17-day-old son, Sammie, blue, freezing cold and not breathing when she jolted awake in the middle of the night.
Despite assuming the worst, she used her CPR training to get her son breathing again as an ambulance was called.
Paramedics arrived just in time and took Sammie to hospital where his breathing was "stabilised" after two-and-a-half nervy hours.
The mum-of-seven believes her son, who recently turned one, "would not be here today if it wasn't for my training".
Now she hopes to help raise awareness for parents about the benefits of knowing CPR if they ever find themselves in her position.
"It’s a couple of hours of training, but for Sammie it was worth a lifetime," Lucy explains.
Sammie, who has a twin sister, Sophie, was born at 33 weeks without a heartbeat and regular breathing.
He spent nine days in neonatal intensive care before being discharged home.
"Everything was clinically fine when he was back home," his mum explains.
"But I had a gut feeling that something wasn't right with him."
Lucy put Sammie to bed in his cot at 11pm and went to sleep herself but at 2.30am she suddenly woke up.
"I sat bolt upright in bed," she says.
"I didn’t even wake up slowly. I literally sat up straight away.
"As I sat up I remember a voice in my head saying, 'look at the baby'.
"He was in his bedside crib and he was blue. As I picked him up, his hands were freezing cold.
"I took him out of his crib and he had a tiny trickle of blood by his nose.
"I shouted my husband, Patrick, who woke up and I told him 'the baby’s not breathing'.
"My first thought was: 'shit'. My second was: 'he’s dead'. My third: 'I need to do something'."
Lucy had been taught CPR at work and says her training suddenly kicked in.
She started CPR on her son, desperately trying to revive his breathing as her husband called an ambulance.
Heartbreakingly, she remembers Patrick phoning a family friend to tell him "Sammie's gone".
"I got his breathing back but not fully, he was taking a breath once every thirty seconds," Lucy continues.
Within seven minutes the emergency services arrived and took over.
"I was giving CPR and the next minute my house was full of paramedics and police," she explains.
After two-and-a-half hours Sammie's breathing had stabilised and he remained in hospital for four weeks.
Despite several brain scans, doctors are still unsure what caused Sammie to go into peri-arrest - the medical term for the unstable condition a person goes into after a cardiac arrest.
"If I didn’t wake up, he would have died," Lucy says.
Now, she's volunteering at the hospital Sammie was born at highlighting the importance of parents knowing CPR.
"I think it’s important people know how to help their babies," she says.
"The CPR kept his body pumping oxygen around him.
"Never in a million years did I dream I’d have to resuscitate any of my children.
"I don’t know what would’ve happened without that training - my son wouldn’t be here today."
More information on first aid in babies and children
The NHS website has some detailed advice on resuscitating children and babies under one.
It recommends that every parent or carer goes on a first aid course, this is because it will help the process easier to remember and understand.
CPR stands for cardiopulmonary resuscitation. St John Ambulance says knowing how to do CPR can give your baby the best chance of survival.
Rescue breaths must be performed on a child, as cardiac arrest in children is likely to be caused by a respiratory problem.
If a child is unresponsive and not breathing normally, you need to call 999 or 112 immediately for emergency help and start CPR straight away.
You can learn more about courses for CPR in babies and children below:
Additional reporting SWNS.
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