A pregnant woman who “died” several times on the operating table after suffering a severe heart attack miraculously gave birth a week later.

Incredibly both 35-year-old Cheryl Crisp and her three-month premature baby son Albie, who weighed just 2lb 7oz (1.2g), survived. It was described by a heart specialist as one of a kind.

Specialist consultant cardiologist Dr Kevin Beatt at Mayday Hospital in Croydon said the pair were “incredibly lucky” and said he could not find another case in which both mother and baby lived.

The Bromley Council cook’s heart stopped beating as surgeons at Mayday worked to remove a blood clot which caused the heart attack.

She was kept unconscious for almost a week as doctors struggled to keep her and the baby alive.

At one point during the family’s eight-day ordeal, the baby’s father, sales manager Terry Kemp, 35, was asked by surgeons to choose which of the two should be saved.

Resuscitated on the pavement

It all began during a shopping trip on December 2, when Cheryl - then six months pregnant - suffered a heart attack in the family car.

Within minutes she had passed out and the panicked Terry jumped red lights in Purley Way to get to their GP.

By the time he got to the surgery in Elmers End, Cheryl did not have a pulse.

Mr Kemp said: “I rushed into the doctors’ surgery and screamed for help.

“Three doctors came out and started to resuscitate her on the car park pavement. It was about 10 minutes before they got any sign of life out of her.

“I was hysterical.”

Paramedics took her to Mayday Hospital but her heart stopped beating again in the ambulance and the crew was forced to shock the heavily pregnant mum to get it going.

Terry, who works for an internet company, arrived at the hospital with Cheryl’s parents Keith and Lynne. He had no idea if she was dead or alive.

He was met by Dr Beatt who told him they had cleared a bloodclot from Cheryl’s artery and both mum and baby were safe.

However, he warned the relieved dad neither were out of danger and the time might come when he had to decide whether to save his partner or his unborn child.

“I immediately said Cheryl. I did not have a relationship with the baby at that point,” he said.

Unexpected birth

When doctors brought Cheryl around after her heart attack six days later, she had severe memory loss and did not remember she was pregnant. She was awake for two days and complained of pain, no one realised she was going into labour.

Terry said: “Her waters broke when her mum and aunt were with her. They lifted up the sheet and saw the baby’s head.”

Doctors delivered the baby successfully and he was taken to the special baby care unit where he has stayed for the last 11 weeks.

Mr Kemp said when they first saw Albie in the specialist care unit he asked the nurses if they had seen similar cases.

He said: “They told us they usually see the babies but not the mothers because they don't survive.”

Dr Beatt said: “It is very unusual for a district general hospital to have the facility to treat a pregnant woman having a heart attack. Those cardiac services are just not usually available. The cardio unit at Mayday is exceptionally good, even by general hospital standards.”

The first thing Cheryl remembers is waking up and asking Terry why she was in hospital.

“He said we had a baby and I said, “What baby? I don’t remember being pregnant.’ And he said, ‘You have had a baby and a heart attack.’”

It did not take Cheryl long before she was demanding to see the tiny son she could not remember carrying.

Albie is now 11 weeks old and has problems breathing, but is doing well.

He is visited every day by his doting parents and older brother Sam, 16, and sister Georgie, nine, the couple’s children from previous relationships.

“Georgie would not come near him in the beginning because he was so small she was petrified she would hurt him,” said Terry.

Cheryl added: “Sam is so proud of his little brother, he keeps boasting to his friends how he’s going to take him down the pub when he grows up.”

Cheryl was a heavy smoker and has been told this might have had something to do with her heart attack.

“When I woke up I could not remember I smoked. That helped. I won’t touch a cigarette again,” she vowed.

Struggle on operating table

Dr Beatt spoke about his heroic efforts to save the pregnant mum.

“Her heart kept stopping on the table. That was a struggle. We could not give her the normal drugs because of the baby.”

He added the cause of her heart attack was a blood clot in her artery.

Dr Beatt and his team cleared the clot and put a stent in Miss Crisp’s artery to keep it open and the blood flowing.

“Heart attack in pregnancy is very unusual in a young girl. It is possible for women in pregnancy to get a tear in their vessels but it is very rare. She was incredibly lucky to survive.”

According to the NHS there were only five recorded cases of pregnant women suffering from a heart attack in 2007/08.

It could not say, however, whether the mothers and babies survived.

Dr Beatt said: “London Ambulance were fantastic. I don’t think I have found a case where the mother has survived in similar circumstances.”