Survivor of rare complication becomes student nurse at hospital that saved her life: ‘Very surreal’

LEADING THE WAY. ONLY ON WLWT. TONIGHT, JUST MINUTES AFTER GIVING BIRTH, A YOUNG MOM SLIPS INTO A COMA. HER FAMILY, UNSURE IF SHE WOULD EVER WAKE UP. BUT NOW, A YEAR LATER, SHE’S NOT ONLY MADE A REMARKABLE RECOVERY, SHE’S RETURNING TO THE VERY SAME HOSPITAL WITH A NEW MISSION. WLWT NEWS FIVE’S LINDSEY STONE SHARES HER JOURNEY. IT’S HARD FOR A MOTHER TO TAKE HER EYES OFF HER CHILD. HE’S SO CUTE. PARKER GAVE ASHLEY ZINN A SECOND CHANCE AT LIFE BY NEARLY TAKING IT. I GRABBED MY DOCTOR’S ARM AND I SAID, I’M DYING. I FEEL LIKE I’M DYING. PLEASE DON’T LET ME DIE. LAST YEAR, ASHLEY AND HER HUSBAND WERE EXPECTING THEIR FIRST CHILD TOGETHER. I WAS SO EXCITED TO MEET HIM. BUT MINUTES AFTER GIVING BIRTH, THE 29 YEAR OLD NEARLY NEVER MET PARKER. AND THEN THAT’S WHEN EVERYTHING KIND OF JUST UNRAVELED FROM THERE. ASHLEY WAS QUICKLY PLACED INTO A MEDICALLY INDUCED COMA, DIAGNOSED WITH A RARE DELIVERY COMPLICATION KNOWN AS AMNIOTIC FLUID EMBOLISM, SHE WAS GIVEN JUST A 30% CHANCE TO LIVE. THINGS JUST GOT REALLY, REALLY SCARY WHILE SHE LIE IN THE HOSPITAL BED, HOOKED UP TO LIFE SUPPORT, HER NEW LITTLE FAMILY NEVER LEFT HER SIDE. THEY LET PARKER SLEEP IN HIS LITTLE BASSINET WITH ME EVERY NIGHT, AND I SWEAR THERE WAS JUST A PART OF ME THAT JUST KNEW THAT HE WAS THERE. AND IT’S REALLY JUST 6 TO 8 WEEKS. LITTLE BY LITTLE, ASHLEY SLOWLY RECOVERED. I’M DOING AMAZING TOGETHER, RELEARNING TO WALK, TALK, HOW TO USE HER ARMS AGAIN, ALL FOR THIS MOMENT. ARE YOU SLEEPY? HOW DO YOU SAY THANK YOU TO THE TEAM OF DOCTORS WHO SAVED YOUR LIFE? FOR ASHLEY, SHE DECIDED TO WORK ALONGSIDE THEM. HEY, SARAH. I FELT LIKE I HAD FINALLY HAD MY PURPOSE. AND THIS WAS MY PURPOSE FOR LIVING. WAS BEING ABLE TO HELP SAVE OTHER PEOPLE AND HELP PEOPLE WHO ARE GOING THROUGH A VERY SIMILAR SITUATION. ASHLEY, WHO WAS ENROLLED IN NURSING SCHOOL WHEN SHE GAVE BIRTH, DECIDED TO RESUME THE PROGRAM, BECOMING A STUDENT NURSE ON THE SAME FLOOR OF BETHESDA NORTH HOSPITAL THAT TOOK CARE OF HER. SO THERE WASN’T A QUESTION IN MY MIND ABOUT DO I COME BACK HERE? IT’S WHEN, WHEN, WHEN CAN I GET BACK IN HERE? I FIRST MET HER COMING OUT OF THE OPERATING ROOM. NURSE ASHLEY SHEARING ONCE RAN THE LIFE SUPPORT MACHINE THAT KEPT ASHLEY ALIVE. NOW, IN A BEAUTIFUL TWIST OF FATE, ASHLEY IS TEACHING ASHLEY HOW TO DO THE SAME. IT’S VERY SURREAL THAT SHE, YOU KNOW, IS DOING THE EXACT THINGS THAT YOU KNOW. SHE IS EXPIRED BY THE CARE THAT SHE HAD HERE AND WANTS TO GIVE BACK TO OTHERS AND DO THE SAME THING. ASHLEY SPENT MONTHS HOPING TO ESCAPE THE HOSPITAL’S HALLS. NOW SHE’S CHOOSING TO RETURN, HOPING TO HELP OTHERS FIND THE HEALING SHE ONCE PRAYED FOR. IT SAYS A LOT ABOUT HER. A LOT OF PEOPLE WILL TAKE IT AND RUN. YOU KNOW, THANKS, I APPRECIATE IT. BUT TO SAY, YOU KNOW WHAT I DID BECAUSE THAT’S NOT FAIR. QUESTION. I WISH, I WISH. THERE’S NOTHING I’LL EVER BE ABLE TO DO IN THIS LIFETIME THAT WILL BE ABLE TO AMOUNT TO WHAT THEY’VE GIVEN ME. AND THAT’S LIFE. A CHANCE TO BE A MOM, A WIFE, A FRIEND, A NURSE. AND I JUST THANK GOD EVERY DAY THAT I GET TO BE HERE TO SEE HIM GROW UP. BECAUSE I CAN’T FATHOM GOING THROUGH LIFE WITHOUT MY CHILD. ASHLEY IS NOW USING HER EXPERIENCE AND KNOWLEDGE TO SAVE LIVES AT THE VERY HOSPITAL THAT SAVED HERS. LINDSAY STONE WLWT NEWS FIVE. I GOT A SNEAK PEEK OF THIS STORY A FEW DAYS AGO, AND IT JUST BROUGHT ME TO TEARS BECAUSE IT’S AMAZING THAT SHE SURVIVED. BUT THEN TO GO AHEAD AND SAY, OKAY, NOT ONLY DO I WANT TO BE A NURSE, I WANT TO BE A NURSE IN THE SAME HOSPITAL THAT SAVED MY LIFE. THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR FOLLOWING UP ON THAT AND FOR SHARING YOUR STORY WITH US AND YOUR BABIES. SUCH A CUTIE! IT’S ONE OF THOSE HIGHER CALLING JOBS WHERE YOU KNOW YOU’RE DRAWN TO IT FOR A REASON. YOU SEE THAT OFTEN WITH PEOPLE WHO ARE TREATED IN A HOSPITAL THAT THEY WANT TO GET INTO, THAT I’M GLA

Survivor of rare complication becomes student nurse at hospital that saved her life: ‘Very surreal’

Updated: 9:42 AM CST Nov 9, 2025

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Just minutes after giving birth, a young mother slipped into a coma. Her family was unsure if she’d ever wake up. But now, a year later, Ashley Zinn has not only made a remarkable recovery, but she’s also returning to the very same hospital on a mission.“I grabbed my doctor’s arm and I said, ‘I’m dying’,” said Ashley. “I feel like I’m dying.”Last year, Ashley and her husband were expecting their first child together. But minutes after giving birth, the 29-year-old almost never met Parker.“Everything kind of just unraveled from there,” Ashley said.Ashley was quickly placed into a medically induced coma, diagnosed with a rare delivery complication known as an amniotic fluid embolism. She was given just a 30% chance of living.“Things just got really, really scary,” Ashley said.While she was lying in a hospital bed hooked up to life support, her new little family never left her side.“They let Parker sleep in his little bassinet with me every night, and I swear, there was just a part of me that just knew that he was there,” Ashley said.Little by little, Ashley slowly recovered. She relearned to walk, talk, even how to use her arms again, all to reunite with her family.How do you say thank you to the team of doctors who saved your life? Ashley decided to work alongside them.“I felt like I had finally had my purpose, and this was my purpose for living, was being able to help save other people and help people who are going through a very similar situation to mine,” Ashley said.Ashley, who was enrolled in nursing school when she gave birth, decided to resume the program. She became a student nurse on the same floor of Bethesda North Hospital that took care of her.“There wasn’t a question in my mind about do I come back here?” Ashley said. “It’s when can I get back in here.”“I first met her coming out of the operating room,” said nurse Ally Schiering.Schiering once ran the life-support machine that kept Ashley alive. Now, in a beautiful twist of fate, Ally is teaching Ashley how to do the same.“It’s very surreal that she is doing the exact things that she is inspired by the care that she had here and wants to give back to others and do the same thing,” Schiering said.Ashley spent months hoping to escape the hospital’s halls. Now, she’s choosing to return, hoping to help others find the healing she once prayed for.“Says a lot about her,” said Dr. Doug Adams, a cardiovascular and thoracic surgeon. “A lot of people will take it and run.”“There’s nothing I’ll ever be able to do in this lifetime that will be able to amount to what they’ve given me, and that’s life,” Ashley said. “A chance to be a mom, a wife, a friend, a nurse.”“I just thank God every day that I get to be here, to see him grow up,” Ashley said. “Because I can’t fathom going through life without my child.”

Just minutes after giving birth, a young mother slipped into a coma. Her family was unsure if she’d ever wake up.

But now, a year later, Ashley Zinn has not only made a remarkable recovery, but she’s also returning to the very same hospital on a mission.

“I grabbed my doctor’s arm and I said, ‘I’m dying’,” said Ashley. “I feel like I’m dying.”

Last year, Ashley and her husband were expecting their first child together. But minutes after giving birth, the 29-year-old almost never met Parker.

“Everything kind of just unraveled from there,” Ashley said.

Ashley was quickly placed into a medically induced coma, diagnosed with a rare delivery complication known as an amniotic fluid embolism. She was given just a 30% chance of living.

“Things just got really, really scary,” Ashley said.

While she was lying in a hospital bed hooked up to life support, her new little family never left her side.

“They let Parker sleep in his little bassinet with me every night, and I swear, there was just a part of me that just knew that he was there,” Ashley said.

Little by little, Ashley slowly recovered. She relearned to walk, talk, even how to use her arms again, all to reunite with her family.

How do you say thank you to the team of doctors who saved your life? Ashley decided to work alongside them.

“I felt like I had finally had my purpose, and this was my purpose for living, was being able to help save other people and help people who are going through a very similar situation to mine,” Ashley said.

Ashley, who was enrolled in nursing school when she gave birth, decided to resume the program. She became a student nurse on the same floor of Bethesda North Hospital that took care of her.

“There wasn’t a question in my mind about do I come back here?” Ashley said. “It’s when can I get back in here.”

“I first met her coming out of the operating room,” said nurse Ally Schiering.

Schiering once ran the life-support machine that kept Ashley alive. Now, in a beautiful twist of fate, Ally is teaching Ashley how to do the same.

“It’s very surreal that she is doing the exact things that she is inspired by the care that she had here and wants to give back to others and do the same thing,” Schiering said.

Ashley spent months hoping to escape the hospital’s halls. Now, she’s choosing to return, hoping to help others find the healing she once prayed for.

“Says a lot about her,” said Dr. Doug Adams, a cardiovascular and thoracic surgeon. “A lot of people will take it and run.”

“There’s nothing I’ll ever be able to do in this lifetime that will be able to amount to what they’ve given me, and that’s life,” Ashley said. “A chance to be a mom, a wife, a friend, a nurse.”

“I just thank God every day that I get to be here, to see him grow up,” Ashley said. “Because I can’t fathom going through life without my child.”