When Chantel Saarinen went into hospital gasping for breath in June 2009, she thought she’d caught a bad flu. She was 22 weeks pregnant, newly single, and unsure if she even wanted to keep the baby.

Within days she was in intensive care, diagnosed with the H1N1 swine flu virus that was sweeping across the globe. She slipped into a coma. At 26 weeks, while unconscious, she gave birth to a two-pound daughter who needed open-heart surgery to survive.

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The fact both mother and child lived was, according to doctors, a first-of-its-kind survival story. But as Saarinen tells it today, that miracle was only the beginning of years of hardship and resilience.

“I was in a coma. My body rejected my daughter, and she was born at 26 weeks,” she said. “The doctor literally pushed on

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