Mother sacrifices her own life for her newborn baby

A Colorado mother was faced with a tough decision - live and let new unborn baby die, or die and let her miracle baby live.

Karisa Bugal made the ultimate sacrifice and died shortly after she gave birth to a baby that doctors described as a seven-pound, four-ounce "miracle."

Declan Jay Bugal was born November 3. While in labor with Declan, doctors discovered Karisa Bugal, had a rare and often deadly condition called amniotic fluid embolism.

"The amniotic fluids surrounding the baby or part of the baby's skin or hair gets into the mother's bloodstream and that causes catastrophic shutdown of all the organs," Dr. Kelly Gerow said. "We don't know how to prevent it. We don't know how to keep it from happening at all.

"Knowing the grim prognosis of this, I think it's possible that we could have lost Declan," Dr. Gerow said.

According to Dr. Gerow, the condition is so rare, that it has not been thoroughly studied. Before Karisa experience symptoms of the disorder, doctors noticed Declan's heart rate had slowed and his life was at risk. Karisa made the critical decision to have a cesarean with anesthesia to deliver the baby. After surgery, Dr. Gerow said Karis asked about her baby and how much he weighed before she passed away.

"Deep down, I knew it wasn't good, but I wanted to keep faith,"

"They came in and rushed her back to the delivery room and had to do an emergency c-section," said Karisa's husband Wes Bugal, according to Fox news.

Bugal was born in what believed to be a routine c-section birth.

"None of us expected it to be this way. When you're scheduled for a routine c-section, it's supposed to be a happy, happy day", said Declan's aunt, Maren Oates.