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CNN Live Saturday
Healthy Baby Born to a Mother in a Coma
Aired July 28, 2001 - 13:24 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DONNA KELLEY, CNN ANCHOR: The birth of Alexis Cooper is bittersweet for her father. She's a perfectly healthy little girl, and a rare case to the doctors in Cincinnati who delivered her. The mother of the newborn is in a coma from a car crash, and was for most of the pregnancy. Our story is from Lisa Cooney of CNN affiliate WLWT in Cincinnati.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
STEVE COOPER, FATHER: Turn on the news, and it's all these gunshots and it's craziness going on, and then something like this happens, and there's still people out there trying to reach out and help somebody, it's just, I don't know. It's unexplainable. I can't find the words.
LISA COONEY, WLWT CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): At a loss for words seems to be the common theme surrounding the birth of Alexis Michelle.
COOPER: You know, I just hope that, you know, when Alexis grows up and looks back on all of this, she will sense something that she was part of something special, you know.
COONEY (on camera): So, she's been home since March, kind of.
COOPER: Really, this has been my second home.
COONEY (voice-over): The third floor at University Hospital, the maternity center. For months, Steve Cooper says he's been surrounded by his second family.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: To me, it's just a blessing. It's just a miracle that she's here, and we're just happy.
COONEY: And it has been a team effort. Doctors, nurses and social workers, all carrying for Chastity, the 23-year-old mother who has no idea how deeply she has touched so many.
DR. BAHA SIBAI, DIRECTOR, OB GYN: There is no doubt, you know, this, what happened to her, was against the odds. This is why we believe she is a miracle baby.
COONEY: That's doctor Baha Sibai, the director of obstetrics and gynecology, on the enormity of this case. Chastity was only two weeks along when doctors discovered her pregnancy. After months of incredible care and monitoring, it was time.
SIBAI: Finally, we said, let her deliver normally, which was out of it for everybody. We are going to be able to do this.
DR. OORMILLA KOVILAM, DELIVERED ALEXIS: Here's a patient who has extensive brain injury, she does not know what is happening to her, and then this baby comes out, completely normal and crying, and I think that was the most incredible moment in my whole experience with labor and delivery.
COONEY: And outcome that makes even the most seasoned veterans choke up.
(on camera): You seem emotional about it?
KOVILAM: Oh, yeah.
SIBAI: I don't know -- we have a baby, and we still don't know about the mother -- it really is a miracle, I think. This is all that we can say. And we hope that this experience will help -- help people like her.
KOVILAM: I think that's a big lesson that I learned from this whole thing. We really underestimate the capacity of the human being.
COONEY: And perhaps the human spirit. Steve has a long road ahead, with 4-year-old Aaron, 3-year-old Jacob and baby sister Alexis.
(on camera): Is she a miracle baby?
COOPER: I think so. I believe all babies are miracles, but for her to pull through with her mom the way they did, I think there's something special.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KELLEY: Alexis Michelle Cooper weighed seven pounds, seven ounces when she was born on Monday, and we hear that she is doing well.
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