Mum who was put in coma minutes after giving birth is home for Christmas after incredible recovery
Nicola Landsdown, 38, suffered a stroke just two days before her due date
A NEW mum who was put in a coma minutes after giving birth and given a one per cent chance of survival is back home for Christmas after making a miraculous recovery.
An MRI scan then revealed a potentially killer bleed on the brain but doctors safely delivered her daughter Lexi.
She briefly held her baby before she was put in an induced coma.
A specialist team of doctors performed an operation to drill a hole in Nicola’s skull to relieve the pressure on her brain.
She spent weeks in intensive care before intensive rehabilitation to regain her speech and movement in the right hand side of her body which was paralysed.
But heartbreakingly, Nicola, of Aylesbury, Bucks – who had been trying for her first baby for four years – has no memory for the first two months of seven-month-old Lexi’s life.
But she amazed doctors by pulling through and now she, finace Kevin Smeers, also 38, and their daughter are finally reunited at home.
She told The Sun: “It is the best Christmas ever, just spending it with Kevin, Lexi and me.
“I did not think it was possible all those months ago when it seemed like it would never happen.
“I think my positive attitude has helped me because if you have a negative attitude I think it doesn’t help you recover at all.
“It is just the most amazing feeling being home, it difficult to put into words.”
Proud Kevin – who has two kids from a previous relationship – said: “I didn’t think it would ever be possible.
“I remember leaving the hospital after her stroke when the doctors told me that she had a one per cent chance of survival.
“I was thinking ‘that’s it’. You never expect a 38-year-old woman to have a stroke.
“It was her first pregnancy and she doesn’t remember it.
“We have got videos and photos but it’s not the same. It’s not like a dream holiday that you can delay. If you miss it, you’ve missed it.”
Nicola – who has to use a wheelchair – was rushed to Stoke Mandeville Hospital on May 6 where an MRI scan revealed a potentially-fatal bleed on the brain.
Doctors had to deliver Lexi, a healthy 8lb baby, under general anaesthetic by emergency caesarean section the following day at John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford.
She was intensive care there for a month before being moved to Wycombe Genral Hospital and then Amersham Hospital, Bucks .
