THIS is the heartbreaking moment a dying mum cradles the baby boy she never met – having fallen unconscious during the birth.
Amber Pendlebury had two heart attacks and tragically died days after crying out “I can’t breathe”.
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The 41-year-old was put on life-support after coming round from a c-section and taking a turn for the worst – having had no issues in the pregnancy.
Tiny Maxwell Lee had just been born when the mum desperately told medics she couldn’t breathe, and was rushed away for emergency treatment.
The heartbreaking image of mother and son’s final embrace includes Amber’s partner Ben tenderly placing his hands on both of them.
A small teddy was placed near her hand as her little boy lies on her stomach for the last moments of her life.
Amber’s mum, Vida Pendlebury-Atherton, 71, said she had been living in a “nightmare” following the tragic death on February 1.
The former sales manager said just days earlier Amber had been excited about the birth, having prepared everything at home.
Vida said: “I just feel like it’s a nightmare and I’m going to wake up at some point. It’s so, so sad.”
“How can a healthy person with a healthy pregnancy go to have a baby and not come out of it?”
She said that her daughter – who already had two children, aged 13 and 18, from a previous relationship – was well prepared for the arrival of her third baby.
Vida said: “At her age, we were really surprised, but then we were delighted.
“We found out it was going to be a little boy, and they were so looking forward to it.”
Amber was admitted to hospital for the birth on January 25.
Vida said doctors were bringing the mum round when she had a series of sudden heart attacks and never caught a glimpse of her baby before she collapsed.
TRAGIC DEATH
She added: “Doctors delivered the little baby, who was 6 pounds, 2 ounces.
“But she never saw him, as when she woke up, she said, ‘I can’t breath, I can’t breath! My chest is on fire, my chest is on fire!’
“That’s all her partner heard her say, and then she was whisked away.”
Vida was the last person to be at her daughter’s bedside before medics switched off the life support machine.
She said: “There was only one day where we weren’t able to go because of Covid, but we saw her every day apart from that, and I was the last to leave her.
“I couldn’t stay and watch the machine be switched off. I just couldn’t do it, and it was so hard to leave her.”
An inquest has been launched following Amber’s death, with a post-mortem investigation due to reveal the reason why the healthy mum passed away.
Now Vida is raising money, with the hope of reaching £3000, so that Amber can be buried in a cemetery close to where she lives.
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