Edita Tracey, a 35-year-old and 8-months pregnant woman, felt pressure in her chest just three weeks before her due date.
When a CT scan was taken, the doctors found her aorta to be tearing open. She needed immediate open heart surgery.
But first, the baby had to come out. Edita was put under full-sleep anesthesia, and soon after, Arabella was born. She weighed 6 pounds and 12 ounces.
“Looked like a perfectly healthy baby,” Dr. John Horton, the high-risk obstetrician who performed the procedure, told Fox News.
Then, heart surgeon Dr. Omar Lattouf took over. Edita underwent a nine-hour procedure before waking up with her new daughter.
“With everyone knowing what needs to be done. And to do it. And to do it right, the first time. There are no missteps with this one, absolutely no missteps,” Lattouf said.
“I think the baby saved my life,” Edita told ABC News.
There remains uncertainty as to what caused Edita’s aorta to tear, but doctors suspect that it was due to a spike in blood pressure.