Mum’s cuddle brings new-born back to life

LONDON - A woman in Australia cuddled her premature baby back to life even though doctors had told her he was dead, a media report said Friday.

Kate Ogg gave birth to twins in a hospital in Sydney. They were delivered at 27 weeks, weighing just two pounds each, and though Ogg’s little girl Emily survived, her brother Jamie was not breathing, Sky News reported on its website.

After battling to save him for 20 minutes, medical staff told Ogg Jamie had not survived.

“The doctor asked me had we chosen a name for our son,” said Ogg. “I said ‘Jamie’ and he turned around with my son already wrapped up and said: ‘We’ve lost Jamie, he didn’t make it, sorry’.

“It was the worst feeling I’ve ever felt. I unwrapped Jamie from his blanket. He was very limp.”

Ogg told Channel 7’s Today Tonight programme that she wanted to hold him next to her skin. “I took my gown off and arranged him on my chest with his head over my arm and just held him,” she recalled.

“He wasn’t moving at all and we just started talking to him.”

“We told him what his name was and that he has a sister. We told him the things we wanted to do with him throughout his life.”

After two hours, he began showing signs of life. “Jamie occasionally gasped for air, which doctors said was a reflex action,” Ogg explained.

“But then I felt him move as if he were startled, then he started gasping more and more regularly. I gave Jamie some breast milk on my finger, he took it and started regular breathing normally.”

“I thought ‘Oh my God, what’s going on?’ A short time later he opened his eyes. It was a miracle.”

“Then he held out his hand and grabbed my finger. He opened his eyes and moved his head from side to side. The doctor kept shaking his head saying: ‘I don’t believe it, I don’t believe it’.”

It is thought that the warmth of Ogg’s body acted like an incubator to keep the baby warm and stimulated. It adds weight to the theory of “kangaroo care”, named after the way marsupials care for their young in their pouches.

Some experts believe a skin-to-skin approach is more beneficial that taking newborn babies into intensive care incubators. Jamie is now a healthy five-month old.

His father David told the Channel 7 programme: “Luckily I’ve got a very strong, very smart wife. She instinctively did what she did. If she hadn’t done that, Jamie probably wouldn’t be here.”