Mother stuns medics by delivering miracle twins while having heart attack doctors said would kill her

Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 11:29 AM on 16th April 2009

A mother has miraculously given birth to healthy twins - minutes after being struck down by a devastating heart attack.

Nina Whear, 38, battled back from death to deliver the babies after her soldier husband Andy, 39, said a heartbreaking last goodbye to her.

She was given a 7 per cent chance of pulling through as a hospital chaplain was sent in to comfort her in her last moments.

Mother Nina Whear with twins Alfie and Evie, who she gave birth to minutes after a heart attack, their father Andy, and ambulance technicians, Vicky Goddard (right) and Kirsty Bolton (left)

But Nina amazed army sergeant Andy, doctors and nurses by beating the odds - and became the proud mum of twins Evie and Alfie, who weighed 3lb 11oz and 4lb 10oz respectively.

The first-time mother said: 'It was the most frightening night of my entire life, it really was.

'It is unbelievable.

"I am just so grateful and now every morning I think about how I might not have seen that day.'

She added: 'I am so grateful to the staff at the hospital and the ambulance team and all those who helped me.

'And now I have got two beautiful babies too.' 

Nina gave birth by Caesarean section on January 6 after paramedics dashed to her home to find her 'blue from head-to-toe and covered in sweat'. 

As Nina, who was 38-weeks pregnant, went into labour she suffered an aortic dissection, which means the wall of her aorta had torn open.

That forced blood to flow between the layers of the wall of the aorta and prised them apart, threatening to kill her.

Nina Whear was dashed to Norfolk and Norwich Hospital after paramedics found her blue and covered in sweat

Paramedics arrived just in time to give her oxygen - and saved her life on the spot.

Critically ill Nina was then whisked to the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital before being transferred to a specialist heart unit at Papworth Hospital, Cambridge, where she had emergency open heart surgery.

Fearing the worst, doctors advised Andy, who had sped more than 100 miles north from his army base at Aldershot, Hants, to say goodbye to his wife.

But amazingly Nina, a former Prince's Trust team leader from Lamas, near Norwich survived.

'I had quite a difficult pregnancy and I was only getting about 40 minutes sleep a night because every time I lay down I couldn't breathe,' she said.

'But that night it didn't ease at all, and it got worse and worse. My mum was staying as Andy was doing his last shift in Aldershot before his paternity leave.'

'So I had to go into her room and signal for her to call an ambulance because I didn't have the oxygen to talk."

Nina, who works for Norfolk Fire and Rescue Service, added: 'I don't have an awful lot of memory of that part of the night, but I know they carried me downstairs, put me in an ambulance and it was really icy, and took me to the hospital.

'I remember them bringing Andy through and we were left alone to say our goodbyes.
"I was very calm because I thought if I was going to die I wanted to do it calmly.

'When I woke up after the operation I still couldn't talk, but I tried to signal to the nurse to say that I couldn't believe I was alive, although I don~t think she understood what I meant.

'I was so shocked that I didn't even think about the fact I had just had twins, I was just amazed to be alive.'

Andy, who arrived at the hospital in shorts and flip flops, admitted he was in bits during the ordeal.

The soldier said he feared he would lose his wife and babies in one day.

Andy said: 'I couldn't stop blubbing.

'All I could think was what if I don't come back with any of them? All the different scenarios were going through my head, like whether the twins would be okay but Nina wouldn't, or whether Nina would be okay but the twins wouldn't.

'It was horrible.'

Nina still has to visit hospital regularly as she had three blood clots in her body as well as fluid on her lungs.

The mum-of-two now wryly describes herself as 'Frankenstein's bride' because of all her surgery scars.

As a result of her drastic surgery Nina will not be able to pick up the twins until they are 20 weeks old and is no longer able to enjoy her extreme sports hobbies of bungee jumping and white water rafting.

Vicky Goddard, one of the ambulance crew who helped to save her life, said: 'As soon as we arrived we knew it was absolutely critical we got her to hospital as soon as possible - the only diagnosis we needed at that point was looking at her.

'She was so covered in sweat that we thought she had rubbed something like Vicks on her chest and she was blue from head-to-toe. For an adult to have a blue chest is very serious.' 

She added: 'We gave her oxygen immediately and we were only at the house for 13 minutes before she was put in the ambulance.

'Timing was absolutely everything. If we hadn't got her to hospital she may not be here now.'