Supermom Saves One Of Her Triplets With CPR During Labor

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Supermom Saves One Of Her Triplets With CPR While Giving Birth To The Other Two

Weyburn Review / Danielle Johnston

The chances of becoming pregnant with triplets are one in 10,000, so the odds were already stacked against Danielle Johnston.

But when the mother from Saskatchewan, Canada experienced terrifying complications during her early birth, Johnston proved she's one in a million.

And despite her unbelievable story, Johnston says she "didn't do anything anyone else would've done."

"I kind of had to pull her out of me, and when she came out she wasn't breathing."

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Johnston in 2010.The Weyburn Review

Johnston, who was already a mother-of-four before last week, was home on her farm in the small town of Griffin when she went into labor.

It came as a total shock to the her, since she was just 32 weeks pregnant and had been to a checkup earlier the same day.

"I found out that everything looked good, and they didn't think they would come too early," she shared with The Weyburn Review.

Johnston had put her children to bed before lying down herself, but woke up "in horrendous pain" soon after.

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Johnston and her teenage son, Dillon.Global News

The quick-thinking mom directed her 15-year-old son, Dillon, to call 911. He did, and was told it would take 45 minutes for an ambulance to reach their rural home.

In the meantime, Johnston was delivering the first of her triplets, and noticed something was wrong.

"I kind of had to pull her out of me, and when she came out she wasn't breathing."

But Johnston didn't panic for a second.

"Meanwhile I have two more inside me and I'm fighting contractions."

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Baby Karlee needed CPR when she was born.Danielle Johnston

Dillon moved his mother to their couch, where she began to do CPR on her newborn daughter.

Johnston directed Dillon to take the family van and drive it to the nearby road, so he could flag down the ambulance as it arrived.

"It was about 45 minutes that it took for them to come," she later told CBC about her son.

"And the whole time, he was calm and cool and collected "” pretty big for a 15-year-old."

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Johnston's triplets each weighed less than five pounds at birth.Danielle Johnston

Johnston's husband, Trevor, arrived home before the ambulance did, and found his son at the end of the driveway.

"He just kind of said 'Mom had a baby and I have to wait for the ambulance,'" he remembered.

Inside the house, Johnston didn't stop performing CPR the entire time she waited for the ambulance. "Meanwhile I have two more inside me and I'm fighting contractions," she said.

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Danielle Johnston

When help finally arrived, Johnston was whisked to one hospital and then another.

It turned out the two remaining triplets - both boys - were both breech, and she needed an emergency C-section.

"I'm so not a super mom, I'm just a regular person."

After all of the chaos, thankfully Johnston and her three children are all doing well.

The triplets - named Karlee, Jack, and Liam - are still in the NICU. Just 4.5 pounds at birth, they're all growing quickly and expected to be off their oxygen tubes soon.

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Danielle Johnston

"It was kind of scary at first," Johnston remembered.

"They were all on oxygen and IVs. It was almost overwhelming. But the nurse said it's day by day, and they'll come off of all this."

In a surprising twist, this is the third time Johnston has saved one of her children using CPR.

Johnston rescued her daughter, Kate, when she was just 10 months old. She had been buried in sand during a trip to a park, and was "blue" when Johnston dug her out.

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Kate holds one of the newborn triplets.Danielle Johnston

"I got the sand out of her face and mouth, and gave her CPR, and then she started to cry. It was like a weight was lifted when I heard her crying," Johnston said at the time.

Her son, Samuel, also stopped breathing when he was only six, and once again Johnston was the one to rescue him.

But the mother-of-seven is humble despite her three heroic rescues.

"I'm so not a super mom," she told Global News. "I'm just a regular person." But her husband says it best:

"She's steady on her feet, that's for sure."

Congrats to the Danielle and Trevor on their three adorable babies!

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[H/T: HuffPost, Weyburn Review, Global News, CBC, The Star]

I write about all sorts of things for Shared, especially weird facts, celebrity news, and viral stories.