A young family have extended a heartfelt thank you to local paramedics who saved the life of their newborn son.

Jamie and Jenna Parrish were struck by every parent’s worst nightmare when their son Caleb, who was 9 weeks old, stopped breathing on August 12 earlier this year.

Shortly after the emergency services were called to their Brecon home, Caleb suffered a cardiac arrest.

Jamie, Caleb’s father, said: “We were at home one morning and it was just another normal day - we were getting ready to go out.

“Caleb had just had a feed and then within a couple of minutes we could see that he began to stop breathing. It was like everything was shutting down.

“I phoned 999 for help straight away but by the time they had arrived he’d had a cardiac arrest - there were about 9 paramedics in the house, if not more.”

Caleb was initially taken to Nevill Hall Hospital to be put on a ventilator before suffering a further cardiac arrest, when he was taken to Cardiff in an intensive care ambulance.

A few days later Caleb took another turn for the worse and was rushed to Bristol for specialist care.

Jamie said: “When we got to Bristol we were also told, because of the size of the cardiac arrest, that it’s amazing he’s still here.

“When you think of a cardiac arrest, you would normally think of an older person - you don’t think a young baby.”

The family are all now recovering back at their home in Brecon.

Caleb was in hospital for a total of 11 weeks, 10 of which were spent in intensive care.

Jamie said: “Caleb’s taking a lot of medicine and is being fed through a tube. Because of the size of the arrest he’s got a long way to go.

“We won’t know for years if he will fully get better so it’s just a case of keeping an eye on him.”

Jamie and Jenna, who also have three daughters and another son, want to thank the first responding paramedics for their quick response and incredible work.

Jamie said: “We just want to say a massive thank you to the local paramedics here in Brecon for all of their efforts and hard work.

“They were incredible and they’ve been so good with us since. We cannot thank them enough.”

The paramedics who first responded to the call made the decision to shock Caleb’s heart to try and get it beating regularly again.

Jamie said: “We’ve been told that it was an incredible thing to do because Caleb was just so little. We were told it helped massively and probably saved his life.”

The family would also like to thank the police force for their work over recent months.

Officers from Dyfed-Powys Police have been on hand to provide support and information to the family.

Jenna said: “We would also like to thank the police for going above and beyond for us, right from the beginning.

“They not only provided a police escort to Nevill Hall Hospital, but have since been checking up on Caleb and us regularly, as well as offering support and being on hand to answer any of our questions.”

Jamie added: “As a family, we’re really, really grateful and we want to say thank you, and try and make sure the local paramedics and the police force get the recognition they deserve - it could have been so different otherwise.

“With everything going on in the world it’s hard to do much at the moment, but I think a thank you goes a long way.”