She helped save her husband's life with CPR, and then gave birth to their son

Ashley Goette of West St. Paul, Minnesota, is compared to a superhero nowadays, not just because she is a new mother. (Although her 22 hours of work alone would be enough.) That's because in four days she not only gave birth to her first child, but also saved her husband's life.

It all started last Tuesday, around 5 am, when Mrs. Goette was awakened by her husband, Andrew. He seemed to be snoring. She nudged him and asked him to turn around. He did not answer.

Then she realized he was not snoring at all: he was out of breath.

Goette, 28, who works as a teaching assistant at a primary school, called 911 and the dispatcher guided her to chest compressions, asking her to move her husband to a hard surface. But she was 39 weeks pregnant and although she tried, he did not want to move. She continued to make compressions on the bed. The panting stopped. He became purple.

"I thought it was definitely dead," said Ms. Goette on Wednesday. "I do not think I really have time to deal with what's going on."

After about 10 minutes, the paramedics showed up and found that he was not breathing and had no pulse. They shocked his heart and rushed Goette, 28, to the hospital, where his prospects seemed uncertain.

"He was not waking up and interacting with us, so that's always a worrying factor," said Dr. Alex Teeters, a physician specializing in respirology and critical care at United Hospital in St. Paul, on Wednesday.

Soon, a team of doctors approached Ms. Goette with bad news: The first tests suggested that Mr. Goette may have suffered severe brain damage.

"The first 24 hours were painful for the family," said Dr. Teeters, and the doctors have prepared Ms. Goette "to the possibility that this is not a good outcome."

As she remembered, "there was little doubt at that time that he would not come home with me."

The hospital calmed Mr. Goette and began lowering his body temperature during a procedure that would have lasted all day to induce mild hypothermia and reduce brain damage.

"While they were doing that, it was the most terrifying thing to see," Ms. Goette said. "His body was just convulsing." The doctors administered a muscle relaxant to prevent involuntary movements.

"I kept my baby's hand constantly on my stomach and said," We have not had this baby yet. I'm going to wait for you. You will be the first to hold this baby. It does not happen until you're ready, "said Goette.

Then, on Wednesday, once the process was over and sedation was lifted, Mr. Goette began to move.

A nurse asked him to open his eyes and, to everyone's surprise, he straightened up, scanning the faces of his family members.

"The screams coming from her room and the screams did not look like anything else," said Ms. Goette. "Nobody was expecting it – it was crazy."

If Ms. Goette had not acted as quickly as she had, Dr. Teeters had stated that her husband might not have recovered.

"The minutes can make a huge difference in situations like this," said Dr. Teeters.

Mr. Goette later learned that he had Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, a rare condition, also shared by his uncle, that causes abnormal heart rhythms. It is even rarer that patients with this syndrome contract a cardiac arrest, said Dr. Teeters.

The disease is caused by an extra electrical pathway between the upper and lower chambers of the heart, present since birth.

Mr. Goette needed a procedure to destroy the tissue in his heart that was creating the wrong ways. But Thursday, Mrs. Goette began to have contractions. His blood pressure was increasing. The procedure has been postponed.

She gave birth all night and Friday, but hospital staff members eventually urged her to consider a caesarean section. She agreed and on Friday, Lennon was born.

Mr. Goette was the first person to hold it.

"I tore up the hospital gown that I was wearing and I patiently waited for them to go through the hospital gates to be able to put it on my chest," he said. Mr. Goette is recalled.

Seeing them together for the first time "was the most amazing thing I've ever seen," Ms. Goette said. "It made me very happy."

Mr. Goette was operated on Monday and the couple is now back home, surrounded by his family, while he adjusts to life as a new parent.

"We are really lucky," said Goette.