Lucky break for baby Gemma

St John paramedic Mechelle Wharton wasn't going to let a broken leg stop her saving a child.

Ms Wharton was lying on her bed nursing the leg she had broken days earlier when the family of 6-month-old Gemma Beaver burst into her Ngatea home pleading for help to save the choking infant.

Knowing the ambulance was at least 10 minutes away, a pyjama-clad Ms Wharton ignored her doctor's advice to keep her leg straight, and swung herself upright to resuscitate the child.

Gemma, who was born nine weeks prematurely with gastroschisis - a condition in which her intestines were outside her body - had choked while drinking milk and had stopped breathing.

Family members, including her parents Cushla Bernard and Cheyne Beaver, tried patting her back to get her breathing again, but their attempts were unsuccessful.

It was then Gemma's grandmother, Linda Bernard, remembered her ambulance officer neighbour, who she knew was at home recuperating.

The family rushed next door and burst through the front door yelling for help.

They found Ms Wharton in her bedroom, feet up, resting her leg.

Her injury happened at a "Tough Guy & Gal Challenge" in Rotorua - a competition in which contestants engaged in endurance activities, including swamp crossings, climbing spiders-web nets and crawling under barbed wire.

Ms Wharton, ignoring the pain from her leg, manoeuvred herself to the edge of her bed and put the baby on her lap.

At least seven panicked people were crowded into the room.

Ms Wharton rubbed little Gemma's back and cleared mucus from the youngster's nose and mouth.

Gemma finally started to cough and splutter, then began breathing again.

The volunteer ambulance from Ngatea arrived soon after and took the infant to hospital while Ms Wharton watched on crutches, outside in pouring rain.

Mrs Bernard said she had no doubt Mrs Wharton - who works at the Manukau St John - saved her granddaughter's life that day in August, and she has sent a letter to St John, praising the paramedic.

"She didn't think twice, she didn't care how she looked or how she was dressed ... she was so calm while we were all falling to pieces."