real life

What this hero mum did blows us away

"I'm not going to let you go" vowed hero mum Lynette Hales as she delivered her premature twins on a remote roadside. Her friend called 911 and Lynette started performing CPR on her first baby, who was born not breathing.

Lynette had been enjoying a getaway with friends in Utah, seven weeks before her twins were due, when she went into labour in her hotel room. She was driving to the nearest hospital when she realised her babies weren't going to wait. 

When tiny Jeffrey arrived he was still "in the sack" and not breathing. Lynette frantically tried to resuscitate her son, but he was still greyish blue, gurgling and and struggling to breathe.

"I was so scared that he wasn't going to make it and that my choice of being out there was going to cause my babies not to live," an emotional Lynette said at a news conference earlier this week, as her husband of nine years, Jeff Hales, tightly held her hand.

Fortunately for Lynette Utah State Trooper Nathan Powell arrived soon after and cleared the newborn's airway with a suction tool.

"I could see the baby was purple," Nathan recalls. "He didn't look real good."

To Lynette's relief, Jeffrey began to regain color.

"Talking to him, it was like he was connected there," Lynette said. "He would look up at us, and he would look up at me, and I was like, 'I'm not going to let you go. You're going to be here, buddy.'"

The second twin, Anthony, was then delivered feet first but "gave out a big squawk" and "was breathing much easier" Nathan said.

Shortly afterwards, two helicopters arrived with a team of high-risk pregnancy specialists. The babies are still in intensive care, but their mum hopes to take them home by their original due date in August.

"They're such miracles," she says. "And they're fighters. They're strong. They're going to be a couple of amazing boys."

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