Miracle baby delivered by C-section after mother shot dead in drive by shooting – TheLiberal.ie – Our News, Your Views

Miracle baby delivered by C-section after mother shot dead in drive by shooting




Baby of mother who was shot dead in gangland drive by at 35 weeks pregnant delivered via emergency cesarean branded  “Miracle Baby” by doctors.

Vanessa Oviedo (27) was fatally shot in the head in Visalia California on the night of Thursday 17th November 2016.

She was travelling in a car with three other people, including an 11-month-old child, when the drive by shooting occurred.

The car was fired upon by the occupants of another car and she suffered head wounds as a result of the apparent gang-related attack, the Fresno Bee newspaper reported.

It was understood she was around 35 weeks pregnant at the time of the shooting.

Doctors said they had just 30 seconds to perform the C-section when she was brought into hospital with no pulse to try and save her child.

They performed an emergency Cesarean section on lifeless body of Ms Oviedo and delivered a perfectly healthy baby boy.

Emergency ward doctor Greggory Shubert said: “It was heroic. This is something we’re taught to do, but this rarely occurs.”

When she arrived, Ms Oviedo was reported as a woman in labour, but had to act quickly when she was discovered to have no vital signs.

The surgeon, Dr Renee DeNolf, said it was a tense couple of seconds.

“I got my scalpel out,” Dr DeNolf told Fresno television station KFSN. “My attendant said, ‘cut’, so I cut.”

The baby emerged barely moving and not breathing and it was not until a few seconds later that medics found a pulse, she said.

“To pull that baby out and know you save him, that is something I will never take for granted,” Dr DeNolf added.

The driver of the car, Andrew Aguirre, was also shot in the leg but drove to the Kaweah Delta Medical Centre.

The new-born boy is now in a healthy and stable condition, police chief Lt Brian Winter said.

Detectives say they think the car was deliberately attacked, but have not been able to work out which of the passengers was the target.

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