A Colorado mother panicked when her toddler accidentally dropped her baby sister. The incident, however, would save the infant’s life.
Jewel Hee was busy doing laundry in September 2024 when she caught her three-year-old daughter, Harper, trying to pick up four-month-old baby Hazel.
The 27-year-old raced over, but not before Harper accidentally dropped the baby from about a foot off the ground.
Terrified that Hazel may have been seriously injured, the mother-of-two rushed her straight to the hospital, where a full-body X-ray revealed she hadn’t broken any bones.
It wasn’t until they were about to leave that a nurse discovered Hazel’s oxygen levels were extremely low, which can eventually lead to brain death.
Doctors believed the infant may have had a lung infection and prescribed antibiotics, but her health continued to decline over the next several months.
Finally, in May 2025, an MRI scan revealed Hazel had suffered a stroke during pregnancy, which Hee says would have gone undetected had she not initially rushed her daughter to the hospital for a freak accident.
Hee said: ‘My daughter saved Hazel’s life. All of our family and friends consider Harper to be Hazel’s hero. It was a happy accident in the end. It was divine intervention.’
Jewel Hee was terrified when her toddler, Harper (left), accidentally dropped her younger sister, Hazel (right). However, doctors believe it actually saved her life
Doctors believe the stroke was due to a blood clot in Hee’s placenta, a temporary organ that grows during pregnancy to provide nutrients to a fetus.
‘We were completely dumbfounded,’ Hee said. ‘We were expecting to leave and they told us everything was great. We were shocked.
‘I thought, “Why wasn’t this found beforehand?” She’d had four months of screening with doctors and she’s had all her vitals done before.’
‘I was very upset at first [after finding out about the stroke]. You’re telling me my child had a stroke while I was pregnant with her and not a single doctor was able to catch that?’
A perinatal stroke, or a stroke that occurs in the womb, cuts off blood supply to a fetus’ brain, which may later lead to developmental delays and feeding issues. It affects between one in 1,000 and one in 3,000 newborns in the US.
Hazel had trouble breastfeeding and would aspirate milk into her lungs rather than her stomach, which had triggered her low oxygen levels. She had also been born at a low weight and had reduced muscle tone, leading to movement difficulties.
Hee said: ‘[Previously] the doctors weren’t concerned so I wasn’t concerned. Usually when you have really low oxygen your lips will turn blue and you have a harder time staying awake, but she had none of those symptoms.
‘The doctor had told us that if we had not found this as soon as we did and she had gone through flu season without understanding what had been going on, we would have lost her.’
Hazel is pictured at left and right in the hospital. The stroke she suffered in the womb has left her with developmental delays as well as oxygen and feeding issues
Hee said she is grateful that Harper (left) inadvertently saved her sister’s (right) life, as doctors believe she would not have otherwise survived
Hazel now receives oxygen therapy, suffers from developmental delays, wears braces on her feet to help her strength and uses a feeding tube as a result of the stroke.
While Hee is ‘grateful’ that Harper saved Hazel’s life, she urges parents to seek medical care immediately if anything seems off and is pushing for more thorough screening from doctors.
She said: ‘I am eternally grateful. I thank God every day that everything happened that did and we were able to find out early. If they would have caught it earlier she would not need to have as nearly as many interventions as she does now.
‘It’s absolutely terrifying to think that something that could have been prevented, or at least caught as early as it supposedly happened so that she didn’t have as many issues as now.
‘I want to raise awareness for other people to make sure they ask questions they need to at a routine appointment and that they push for more through screening.
‘If they see anything wrong with their child, don’t hesitate to bring them in or get them checked out.’
