Million-to-One Chance Saves Dying Baby

It was a million-to-one chance that saved her baby’s life when a frantic mother rushed out into the street looking for help.

At that very moment First Aider Naa Kai Laryea, 16, just happened to be walking past her door in Hackney, London.

The teenager took the unconscious 14-month-old from her arms and applied immediate cardiopulmonary resuscitation – which she had learned on a St Johns Ambulance course at her local church just a few weeks before.

Mother Gianna Gudsell, 35,  told the Standard that her son, Hector, had slipped and hit his head while she was washing him in the bath:

“He stopped breathing and he had his eyes open. Honestly, I thought he was gone. She grabbed the baby from my arms. It was like she was a doctor – I thought she was much older.”

Leaving the Hector in the care of the teenager, Mrs Gudsell went to ring her husband while another passer-by called an ambulance.

“While I was screaming, ‘Where’s the ambulance?’ Naa Kai said she thought he was coming back, and his eyes went normal. The ambulance arrived very quickly but it was essential she was there.”

The ambulance crew congratulated the teenager on her fast action. Hector was taken to Homerton Hospital after the drama on Monday last week, where he fell into a coma before recovering.

Naa Kai said:

“Because I knew what to do, I wasn’t scared. As soon as I heard the baby was not breathing I just took charge. He was freezing cold, then his heart started beating really fast. I was calm – but calmer when I heard his heartbeat.”