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My baby woke me from a coma

‘It’s seeing that little perfect family unit that we had in my grasp again – that’s what I am aiming for,’ Peter says.


Looking out the window of her small room at Sydney’s Royal Rehabilitation Centre, Emma De Silva’s eyes well with tears as she sees husband Peter and baby daughter Eloise arrive.

‘Isn’t she gorgeous!’ declares Emma, 35, of the six-month-old.

But that small bundle of pink is more than just adorable. Dad Peter believes the baby
is responsible for a miracle – bringing his wife back from the brink of death and out of her eight-week coma.

‘I can’t fathom the recovery Emma has made. We were given such dire news when the accident first happened,’ says Peter, 34.

‘Every day has been a little, minor miracle. Emma is changing daily, her progress is very steep at the moment.

‘I’m very lucky,’ adds Emma. ‘I don’t know if I could do it if it was the other way around.'

The family have come a very long way since that awful day on March 14, when their
lives changed forever. Just before 4pm on a seemingly ordinary day, Emma was pushing 19-day-old Eloise in her pram along the footpath of the Princes Highway in Sydney’s St Peters when a car swerved into her path, nearly taking her life and all of her dreams for the future.

Rushed to Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Emma’s life was hanging in the balance. Meanwhile, Eloise was rushed to the Sydney Children’s Hospital at Randwick with a broken left shoulder and bleeding to the brain. Peter, a school teacher, was left devastated.

‘Emma will tell you I never cry,’ he recalls. ‘She has always said I was heartless because I never shed a tear for anything, but in that 48-hour period there was continual crying.

‘I couldn’t sleep in our bed for a month-and-a-half. It was too hard. Those familiar smells were too much. It was only when my mother came to help look after Eloise that she encouraged me to sleep in our bed again.’ In those days, Emma’s prognosis was not good.

‘We were told if Emma survived those first seven nights, which was a 50/50 chance, her best possible chance would be that she would be in a wheelchair as a vegetable,’ Peter says. ‘At the start, I wanted to fall down, and I would have fallen down if it wasn’t for this little girl, Eloise.’

But not only did the baby give her dad something to be strong for, Peter says it was a ‘gut feeling’ that she could also help her mum.

‘Emma had such a strong bond with this child, that’s all we thought could reach her,’ he says. ‘It was a good idea!’ says Emma now, with a smile. As part of Emma’s recovery process, Peter put Emma’s pyjamas in Eloise’s cot at the hospital and every night Peter would put one of Eloise’s singlets under Emma’s pillow.

‘I love her smell,’ Emma says. And when Eloise came out of hospital, Peter took her to see Emma immediately. ‘Eloise went skin-to-skin with Emma straight away – just to keep the contact and have that smell there was so important,’ he says. ‘It’s what the doctors wanted, too. They pushed me to keep the bond going.’

Then, on Mother’s Day, a miracle happened.

‘Emma had shown signs of recovery but I hadn’t witnessed it. When I walked in that morning and said: “Hello, how are you?” she actually turned her head, opened her eyes and looked at me for the first time. She also moved her hand towards Eloise,’ Peter recalls.

‘I rushed over and said: “Can you move your hand like this?” and she did. All three of us just hugged each other.’ Emma was only awake for a few minutes before returning
to her coma-like state.

‘It really was a strange moment,’ Peter admits. ‘In that time, she also opened her Mother’s Day present. She held it in her hand and I opened it. My mum had brought a cup from England with a picture of Emma, Eloise and I on it as a family. It also said “Number one mum”.’ Emma says she remembers that moment, sensing Eloise was there for her.

‘The bond is so strong. I knew I had to come out of my coma for her,’ Emma says. ‘I love her. She is gorgeous.’ Since that day, Emma and Eloise have spent hours staring at one another, reconnecting. 'When I put Eloise on Emma she sits quite still and, even from an early age, when Emma was still in her coma, Eloise would lie very still and just nuzzle into her. We were always quite shocked at that,’ Peter reveals.

‘We look at each other,’ smiles Emma. ‘I want to get home and help him look after her.’ The doctors are hoping Emma will be home for Christmas – nine months after the horrific accident. In the meantime, Peter and Emma are beginning to share moments most couples take for granted.

‘Every Tuesday night, Emma’s dad watches Eloise and Emma and I have a movie night,’ Peter says. ‘Emma squeezes over and I jump onto the bed and we have a cuddle and watch a movie together for a few hours. It’s like date night.


‘In a few weeks we’re going to have a night “out” where we stay in a hostel unit within the hospital. I’ll stay with Emma and we’ll have a nurse with us. Hopefully we can introduce Eloise into it soon, too. ‘We also go out on day trips. The other day we went to see Harry Potter,’ Peter adds. ‘At the moment, the next stage is for Emma to get out of the wheelchair. She has walked 30 metres and is improving all the time.’

While she is very thankful for all the love around her, Emma admits that it is Eloise who has most inspired her remarkable recovery. ‘She is my driving force to get better,’ she says. And she’s keen to add a brother and a sister to her family.

‘Yes. I want two more. I want a boy and another girl. I really want to do that,’ Emma smiles. ‘Just before the accident we were discussing having more children,’ Peter says. ‘Emma wanted to go back to work for a year and then fall pregnant again. We’re very conscious of the fact we’re not getting any younger!’

By Monique Butterworth
Photos: Nigel Wright