I died for 23 minutes and woke up a mum

After her near-death nightmare, Queensland’s Marina Collins feels like the luckiest new mum in the world..

There’s nothing like the birth of a baby to remind you of the miracle of life.But for first-time mum Marina Collins, it was a miracle that she survived the birth of her son Lincoln at all.

After enjoying a near-perfect pregnancy, Marina was expecting a trouble-free labour. Then, at 35 weeks, things went horribly awry. Marina’s body ballooned when she developed pre-eclampsia – a condition in which high blood pressure occurs in pregnancy – forcing doctors to prepare her for an emergency caesarian. But when Marina had an allergic reaction to her pre-op medication, delivering the baby became the least of their worries.

“I had an extremely rare anaphylactic reaction and went into cardiac arrest,” recalls Marina, who was told she’s just the third person worldwide to have reacted in such a way. “I was dead for 23 minutes and the doctors told my husband they didn’t think I’d make it.”

Faced with no other option, Marina’s obstetrician delivered her baby in the unsterile birthing suite in about four minutes. Then a team of emergency doctors at the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital set about saving baby Lincoln’s mummy.