Pregnant woman who jumped from two-storey window to flee house fire miraculously survives
At 38 weeks pregnant, one might expect mums-to-be to be resting, prioritising their wellbeing and preparing for the arrival of their brood's latest addition.
Tragically for lifestyle influencer Rachel Standfest, however, her final days of pregnancy couldn't have looked more different, after she and her family narrowly escaped a fire which destroyed their entire home, with the expectant mother being forced to jump from a two-storey window to avoid the deadly flames.
The near-tragedy took place in May last year, when Rachel and her partner Travis were awaiting the arrival of their now one-year-old daughter Brynlee.
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Staying at her parents' home whilst the couple's house was being renovated, she opted for an early night, putting off the baby shower preparations that she and her mother had been working on until the following morning.
With Travis already asleep, Rachel climbed into bed to sit with her dog, where she proceeded to stick the telly on and attempt to relax.
Within a matter of minutes, however, the pregnancy influencer sensed that something was wrong.
Speaking to PEOPLE this week, Rachel recalled the evening that almost cost her and her unborn baby their lives.
"I was just watching TV with our dog and I thought that I had heard something earlier," she remembers. "But I didn't go check. I don't know if I heard something or if I smelled something."
"Something made me get up and go check the stairs, and all I could see was smoke. And so I grabbed [our dog] Otis and I ran back and I shook Travis up and I called my mom."
Rachel continued: "The last thing I remember is Travis punching out the screen window, and I could see my mom in the driveway yelling, 'Get out now.' And that's the last thing I remember for probably two weeks."
Though it may remain a blur for Rachel, Travis went on to tell the publication that he'd witnessed his wife jumping 15 to 20 feet from the building to escape the fire.
"Rachel had to go headfirst out the window, so she started going out with her head and I helped lift her legs up and through," he explains.
"And then when I carried my dog out, I had to hang out the window, put him through first, and then hang out to get his whole body out, just because we've got a 70-pound Goldendoodle."
Social media star Rachel claims she went into 'fight or flight' mode in that moment, adding that she 'wasn't scared to jump out'.
Rachel sadly hit her head after taking her leap, fracturing her skull and causing a bleed in her brain, as well as suffering severe burns from the heat of the fire.
After she and her partner were rushed to hospital, however, medics carried out an emergency C-section.
It wasn't until the new parents were taken off their ventilators and feeding tubes in the days that followed that they learned of their daughter's birth.
"They made sure Brynlee was safe first, and then they did it in the trauma bay," Rachel recalls. "They had to cut through a third-degree burn to do that, and they had never done that before, so they took Brynlee and made sure she was okay. And then the trauma team took over and started addressing my burns."
"It wasn't like, 'Oh my goodness, is she going to make it or is she not going to make it? What's the baby going to be like?'.
"It was like, 'Nope, we got to make a decision. We've got a lot of smart people in the room. What are we going to do?' And boom, 15, 20 seconds, and Brynlee was out."
Even more surprising is that Rachel and Travis - who are now expecting their second child together - went on to reveal that the name they'd decided to give their daughter prior to the incident actually has an intrinsic connection to what they were forced to endure, being that Byrnlee means 'burned clearing'.
Anyone else got chills?
Rhianna Benson