Woman Wakes From Coma to Her Newborn Baby

Source: The Dallas Morning News, March 14, 2001

Dallas, TX An 18-year-old woman regained consciousness after giving birth to a healthy girl while in a coma induced by a car accident. Shannon Kranzberg gave birth on Jan. 14 after a Staph infection apparently triggered labor. She had been in a coma for two months.

``I just woke up and the baby was there,'' she told The Dallas Morning News.

Doctors say it's rare for a woman in a coma to give birth, especially by natural delivery. Kranzberg was expected to be released from the Baylor Institute for Rehabilitation on Thursday to join her husband and 2-month-old daughter, Alexis. She still has some weakness on her left side that makes it hard to hold the baby.

Kranzberg was in labor for 10 hours. The baby was about two months premature, and weighed 4 pounds, 12 ounces.

Michael Kranzberg had thought his daughter would never be born and his wife might never regain consciousness. He fainted in the delivery room.

``She's my hero,'' he said of his wife. ``I just want to say to people who are in our position that you've just got to keep the faith,'' he said.