A baby has been reunited with the London paramedic who saved her life during a dramatic lead up to her arrival.
Fia Siciliano was born last October after mum Therese, 40, started bleeding heavily while picking her daughter up from school.
The mum of two, who was 39 weeks pregnant at the time, said: “I have never been so scared in my life.
“I was doing my level best to keep it together, but for sure believed that my little girl wasn’t going to survive.”
Her husband David immediately called 999 and paramedic Katie Vaughan arrived in a fast response car. She quickly recognised that Therese’s condition could be life-threatening for Fia and called for backup.
Ms Siciliano said: “In the ambulance I was already preparing for the worst possible outcome and telling my husband ‘we need to be ready for this baby not being alive’.”
Staff at St George’s hospital in Tooting later confirmed that Fia was alive after hearing her heartbeat.
Later that night, Ms Siciliano went into labour and gave birth to Fia at 7am the next day.
Ms Vaughan said: “I was 95 per cent sure that Fia wasn’t going to make it. When we heard the heartbeat, it took every bit of strength for me to stop the tears of joy rolling down my face.”
A week after Fia’s birth, Ms Siciliano sent the London Ambulance Service a touching letter praising Ms Vaughan’s response.
She said: “I will always remember and cherish the hug she gave me at the hospital after we found out Fia had made it. Women looking after women, mother to mother and human to human, I needed that hug and she saw it.
“Thank you for making a terrible time something I can look back on and still remember beautifully.”
The LAS receive around 13,000 pregnancy-related calls each year and has trained medics and call handlers in maternity skills since 2015.
Camella Main, Lead Midwife at London Ambulance Service, said: “Bleeding heavily after 20 weeks of pregnancy can be very scary. I am in awe of Therese and David for staying so calm and quickly calling for help.
“We have invested a lot of training and resources on teaching ambulance staff how to recognise this type of emergency and act as quickly as possible to save the baby’s life. I am so proud of Katie for doing such an incredible job and contributing to an amazing outcome.”
