Mom Has C-Section Just In Time For Dad To Hold Son Before Dying From Cancer

How devastating.

Source: Justin Paget / Getty

A viral Facebook post detailing one mother’s triumphant miracle and loss within hours of each other is reminding millions of people how precious and unpredictable life really is.

Mom Haley Parke of Connecticut made the decision to have a C-section due to her husband’s cancer taking a terrible turn for the worse. The couple, who has an 18-month-old as well, welcomed their second baby into the world just hours before her husband passed away in the same hospital.

Haley shared her experience in an emotional Facebook post, detailing how her husband, Jb Parke, had been admitted to Connecticut’s Hartford Hospital in late November after experiencing complications due to his battle with cancer. A short time later, the couple learned Jb’s life expectancy had changed from months to days.

With their baby’s due-date just three weeks ahead, Haley and her doctors made the decision to induce labor early to give Jb an opportunity to meet his new son. Sadly on the morning of Dec. 2, Jb’s health began to deteriorate quickly, and Haley made the decision to have a C-section instead.

“It was either a c-section right at that moment, or Jb would not have the opportunity to meet our son,” Haley wrote. “Without a question in my mind, I said ‘Let’s go’ and we did just that. In a matter of literally one minute, I was in the OR, and in just a short 20 minutes later, our son was born.

Haley said JB’s vitals improved for just a moment as he held his newborn.

“He was given to me for a quick kiss, and then a team of doctors and nurses ran him up 2 floors, and he was placed on his daddy’s chest. The miracle of all this? When our baby was placed on Jb’s chest, Jb’s vitals all instantly improved.”