'Our baby was just three days old and I had to fight to save his life'
Two new parents from Warwickshire had to use skills learnt on a recent first aid class to save the life of their three day old baby. Olivia and Ricky Newcombe, from Leamington, were taught CPR at a Mini First Aid class.
While hoping never to need the skill they found themselves performing life-saving CPR on newborn Lenny at just three days old. Olivia, who had undergone a caesarean section, found Lenny unresponsive and not breathing in the middle of the night. After an agonising six and a half minutes, Lenny took a breath as paramedics arrived after dad Ricky performed CPR.
Ricky's prompt actions saved his son's life with Olivia recalling being "physically pulled" from sleep to find her baby floppy and lifeless. While she couldn't perform CPR due to her surgery, Ricky sprang into action.
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Olivia said: "Ricky was amazing and went into fight mode, whereas I had completely gone into freeze mode. It was the worst experience of my entire life. Nothing prepares you, ever, for having to witness your 3-day old baby not breathing.
"We had waited so long for our little miracle; we'd had 2 days of pure joy and I was terrified that I was going to lose him." Olivia is spreading their story to urge all parents to learn crucial CPR skills:.
"The main message that we want to get across is that you always think that something like this will never happen to you, but in the awful circumstance that it does, you need to be prepared in order to save your child's life. We attended our Mini First Aid course thinking that we would only have to use the skills when Lenny was older, however, 3 days in we had to think fast and apply what we'd been taught.
"What I found most useful about the class was really gaining a good understanding on how much pressure you should apply for CPR by learning these techniques hands on. I am a primary school teacher and have had to administer basic first aid regularly on children, but I've never had such quality first aid training.
"I try not to question why this happened because I know that I will never get an answer. I just need to appreciate and be thankful every day that thanks to what we were taught at Mini First Aid we were able to step in and save our little boy's life - and for that we will both be forever grateful."