20-year-old Sharista Giles went into a coma after a horrific car crash last December. She was five months pregnant. In January, doctors were compelled to deliver her baby boy three months early while Sharista remained in a coma.
Prospects for both mother and son were not good. Baby L as Sharista’s family call their new boy until his mum can name him herself, weighed just 2 lbs at birth, while doctors initially said that Sharista’s injuries were so serious that there was very little chance she would recover.
But both Baby L and Sharista have defied all expectations. Baby L remains in the neonatal intensive care unit at University of Tennessee Medical Center but is a fighter and now weighs 6lbs.
And this week Sharista amazed everyone when she opened her eyes and squeezed her mum’s hand for the first time in five months.
She has not been able to communicate yet but is responding when asked to squeeze their fingers. When her family told her the news of her baby boy, she followed the picture with her eyes and even turned her head to look at it when they placed it back on a bulletin board.
The Giles family have been unwavering in their hope and optimism. The Facebook page set up to appeal for prayers for their daughter and grandson is a moving portrait of a family unwilling to give up. Mum, Beverly Giles told ABC News:
“The doctors were telling us there was nothing else they could do. They already gave up hope, but we never gave up. She’s fought this hard.”
The Giles family talk of their daughter’s fighting spirit but their own fighting spirit and dedication to their daughter is incredible. The Facebook community set up for Sharista and Baby L has detailed much of the harrowing last few months, but their positivity comes across at all times.
The outlook for Sharista is still very uncertain, but the Giles family are hoping to bring Baby L to her when he is ready to leave the neonatal intensive care unit.
