Kyle Torkington sounds like any proud new father when he talks about Bella, his and partner Rachael's baby daughter.
"She's got perfect hearing, perfect sight, all her organs are functioning perfectly normally. She sleeps eight to nine hours every night and she wakes up and smiles and gurgles and laughs every morning. She's perfect."
But there is a difference between Bella and any other infant. She might be eight months old now but as doctors, St John ambulance staff and her parents know: Bella shouldn't be here.
Born prematurely at 24 weeks and unable to breathe by herself, Bella weighed just 805g, was so small she fit in the palm of her dad's hand and was given almost no chance of living.
That she survived her first traumatic hours and months was due to her parents' courage, the skill and innovation of St John's paramedics and the expertise of doctors; yet it was not until months later that Kyle and Rachael learned just how heavily the odds had been stacked against her.
Bella's story comes to light as St John New Zealand is launching its 2018 annual appeal fundraising to help support its work in saving lives.
Kyle, a supervisor for JCL Asphalt, says the couple only started telling people they were expecting a baby when Rachael was about halfway through her pregnancy.
"About a week later we were at home in West Melton, 25km inland from Christchurch," he says. "It was incredibly stormy and just before midnight Rach woke me up and said she wasn't feeling too good. I could tell by looking at her that she was in a fair bit of pain. I rang 111 and just as I got on to the ambulance call centre, Rach's waters broke.
"I heard Rach give this huge roar of pain and our little girl flew out. Luckily Rach caught her so she didn't land on the floor.
"I picked up Bella. I put my ear across her face and looked across her chest and I noticed she wasn't breathing, her colour wasn't right. I didn't think she had a heartbeat so the St John call handler talked me through CPR.
St John Annual Appeal 2018 Baby Bella - Long from St John New Zealand on Vimeo.
"After a few minutes she took a big gasp of air and opened her eyes and gave a cough and a squeal. That's when I knew her heart was beating. As soon as I stopped breathing for her, she would stop breathing because she was too under-developed to do it for herself."
"I had to keep breathing for her, giving her mouth-to-mouth resuscitation until St John arrived," he says. "They rustled around the house and found all sorts of crazy stuff and jimmied up a contraption they could hook up to her mouth to pump some oxygen into her.
"That on-the-spot thinking saved her life."
Steve Pudney, a St John intensive care paramedic with 15 years' experience, who was first on the scene with crew member Olivia Burns, remembers that night only too well.
"Olivia and I were under no illusions. Because of the size and gestation of the child, the chances of her surviving were pretty much zero, so we prepared ourselves for that," he says.
"She was barely breathing and was so small we couldn't put any monitoring gear on her - we had to be gentle, it was very, very risky."
The St John ambulance officers team, which included intensive care paramedic Karen Connolly providing additional clinical oversight, wrapped baby Bella in gladwrap to keep her moist; popped her into a ziplock oven bag and - to keep her warm - cut the end of one of Kyle's socks to put on her head like a hat.
The ambulance staff kept ventilating Bella's lungs and applying oxygen for about 30 minutes before they decided it was safe to take the family to Christchurch Women's Hospital.
"I gave the hospital a call," says Pudney. "There was silence on the end of the phone; I don't think they could believe that a baby this small could have lived."
Kyle and Rachael spent five months in hospital with Bella and it wasn't until they left they were told just how slim the odds had been: "When we arrived that night they gave Bella zero per cent chance of surviving," says Kyle. "It was an incredibly long and tough time."
Today, Bella - whose middle name, Olivia, is after paramedic Olivia Burns - is just like any other baby girl, but with a twist. "Bella was meant to be born in November so she's technically only four months old. But she was born in July so she's coming up eight months," says Kyle.
"She's fantastic. She's growing (now weighing in at 6kg) she's a happy little girl and we've started not to stress about her so much; it's a real miracle."
Bella owes her life to the work of St John and the people who save lives every day, from call-handlers and dispatchers, to ambulance officers and volunteers. St John is conducting its 2018 Heart of Gold Annual Appeal throughout April. To make a donation go to www.heartofgold.org.nz or donate at any ASB branch.