Last year, in the ultimate example of a mother’s instinct, 23-year-old Shelly Cawley was roused from her medically induced coma after hearing the cries of her newborn daughter for the first time.

The mother needed to be put under for an emergency C-section, and although the procedure went fine, doctors began to worry when she still had not awoken several hours later.

"The doctors had done all they could and it was clear, they absolutely thought they were losing her at this point," Shelly’s husband, Jeremy Cawley told People. At this point, Ashley Manus, a quick-thinking nurse stepped in and proposed that the cries of her newborn daughter, Rylan, may be enough to rouse Shelly from her sleep. “I was hoping somewhere deep down, Shelly was still there and could feel her baby, hear her baby, and her mother's instincts would come out and she would realize, 'This is where I need to be.'" Manus told People.

Within minutes of hearing her baby’s cries, Shelly’s vitals peaked and she woke up long enough to hold Rylan for the first time. However, it still was another week before Shelly made a full recovery from her coma.

“My life, that i’m still here because of her, and I can’t wait to tell her that, to tell her that she saved my life,” Shelly told Fox 4 Kansas City.

The North Carolina mom’s reaction to her baby’s cries adds further evidence to the idea that coma patients can hear their loved ones while asleep. Past research has shown that reading stories to coma patients may even help to stimulate the areas of their brain responsible for long-term memory and may help trigger awareness.

Now, a year after the ordeal, the Cawley’s are not only celebrating Rylan’s birthday but also the anniversary of her mother’s recovery.