A Nigerian man identified as Emmanuel Olubayo lost his wife while she was six months pregnant, he was saved from having a double tragedy by medical doctors in the UK after they helped to deliver his daughter alive.
35-year-old Emmanuel’s wife, Emma, a nursing team leader, collapsed from an undetected heart defect and died in the home they shared in Leicestershire in November last year. Paramedics tried for an hour to resuscitate the 41-year-old before performing a rare posthumous delivery via Caesarean section on the living room floor in the couple’s home.
The couple’s baby girl Aretha was delivered alive then taken to hospital. Emmanuel said he was shocked to become a father and a widower on the same day.
“It is hard and I don’t really know how I am coping as single dad but I am. I have to be strong for Aretha. One day I will tell her all about her mother and how wonderful she was.” Emmanuel told Leicester news
Aretha was born 10 weeks prematurely and was taken to hospital where she was cared for by members of the team that Emma led – the critical care outreach team which covers Glenfield Hospital, Leicester Royal Infirmary and Leicester General Hospital.
Emmanuel said himself and Emma met on a dating site and fell in love afterwards.
“I knew when I started chatting to Emma online that she was special,” he said. “We had an immediate connection.We got on really well and arranged to meet after three weeks chatting.”
They had their first date in May 2016, he proposed in December of the same year and they got married in April 2017.
“I caught a train after work and we met at about 7pm. We did not want the night to end and I caught the last train home to Birmingham. The evening had flown by and we talked about everything and nothing. We could not wait to see each other and were in contact all the time from that night on. It was as if we were meant to be together. I gave Emma a sapphire ring and asked her to marry me. She said yes and was ecstatic. Everyone cheered. It was beautiful.” he said
Within a month after their wedding, Emma became pregnant.
“We were both delighted that we were pregnant so quickly. Everything was going so well. It was great and we were making plans for the future. We wanted a couple of children. We did not want to know what sex the baby was. We wanted it to be a surprise. It was fun choosing names for a boy and for a girl.” he said
Sadly, Emma died and never met their daughter.
More than 650 people attended Emma’s funeral.