P.E.I. family searching for people who saved their baby's life 21 years ago

A family from Freetown, P.E.I., wants to thank the Good Samaritans who helped save their daughter's life 21 years ago.

But first, they they have to find them.

Mary Taylor said it's something they've thought about often since that warm summer day in July 1997.

She and her sister-in-law were driving along Highway 2 just outside Springvale. Taylor was in the backseat with her daughter Emma, who was just 11 days old.

Emma was asleep in her car seat when Taylor became concerned — it appeared her baby had stopped breathing.

"I thought maybe it was the heat so I took a cold cloth to kind of wipe her face and she didn't move and that made me nervous," Taylor said.

Taylor then pinched Emma and flicked her feet. Still no reaction. Then she noticed Emma's lips were turning blue.

Vehicles pulled over

"I yelled at my sister-in-law and she pulled over and she got the baby out of the car seat and started doing artificial respiration on her and I went in to the road to flag down people."

It's something we thought about and talked about lots over the years. Who were they?— Mary Taylor

Two vehicles pulled over. One was an older couple in a van. Taylor believes they were from Kensington.

The other was a car. It was full of people, Taylor recalls. One jumped out, a woman who said she was a nurse.

"She came over and started giving Emma artificial respiration and checking her pulse and so forth," Taylor said.

The couple in the van offered to drive them all to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital. Along the way, the nurse continued to work on Emma.

"She kept telling me that she had a pulse, that it was really low and I just remembered that," Taylor said.

Emma began to cry

When they got to the hospital, Emma was put on a gurney and she began to cry. Taylor said that's when they knew Emma would be OK.

But through it all, Taylor said she was in such a panic she didn't get the names of the couple in the van or the woman who leapt to their rescue at the side of the road.

"They just were so generous and so kind and there for me in that moment and then they moved on and we never knew who they were," she said.

"It's something we've thought about and talked about lots over the years. Who were they?"

Sudden Infant Death Syndrome

Doctors would later determine the cause of Emma's condition was likely Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, which was somehow caught and reversed by everyone involved, Taylor said.

The Taylors have since moved to Nova Scotia. Emma, now 21, is a student at the University of Prince Edward Island.

Taylor said Emma has always been curious about the people who helped save her life, and suspects they might be curious about Emma as well.

We've been eternally grateful and we'd love to meet them.— Mary Taylor

"If we had been involved in something like that, we'd want to know whatever became of that baby so we wanted them to know that she grew up to be a wonderful girl," Taylor said.

"It was unbelievable day, as you can imagine, and an unbelievable gift."

The Taylors are asking people to share a post on their Facebook page in hopes of finding the long lost Good Samaritans. As of Thursday afternoon, it had been shared almost 3,000 times.

Anyone with information is asked to post on the Facebook page or email Emma's father at [email protected].

"We've been eternally grateful and we'd love to meet them," Taylor said.

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With files from Mainstreet P.E.I.