Pregnant Tinley Park Mom, Baby Saved By Stranger After Brain Aneurysm; Now She Wants To Find Hero 911 Caller

TINLEY PARK, IL — A Tinley Park woman and mother of two says she's lucky to be alive after a medical emergency on Christmas Eve 2025—and owes it to the person who called 911.

Stacey Doranski, 33, was 36 weeks pregnant and had gone to a gas station at 191st and Harlem in Tinley Park to vacuum her car, in anticipation of bringing home the new baby. She had finished the front seat and turned her focus to the back seat. From there, she doesn't remember much—only the flurry of activity that came after.

A bystander found Doranski unresponsive on the ground at the gas station, and made the critical call to 911.

"Next thing I know, I was in an ambulance," she said. "I was screaming, 'I’m pregnant! I’m pregnant!'"

As she was rushed to Franciscan Health in Olympian Fields, she feared for her baby's safety, but knew something wasn't right.

"I remember my head hurting really bad," she told Patch.

Doctors at Franciscan Health wanted to perform a CT scan, a test she initially refused to shield her daughter from any potential exposure. But as her pain continued, doctors insisted it was necessary.

With a 4-year-old son waiting at home, Doranski's fear had intensified along with her pain.

"I remember saying, 'I don’t wanna die!'" she said. "'I don’t wanna leave my babies!'”

The scan confirmed the worst: a brain bleed caused by a ruptured aneurysm.

Specifically, she had suffered a subarachnoid hemorrhage, or a life-threatening type of stroke caused by bleeding into the space surrounding the brain, usually from a ruptured aneurysm. It's said to cause a sudden, severe "thunderclap" headache, according to Mayo Clinic. Immediate medical attention is vital, as it carries a high risk of death or permanent neurological disability.

Doranski was airlifted to Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, where specialists immediately set to work figuring out a plan. They had to find a way to keep baby and mom safe before Doranski's condition worsened.

"... could not have been urgent," Doranski said. "This was extremely urgent. Not only because I had a brain aneurysm, but the fact that I was pregnant too. The labor and delivery team and the neuro team had to come up with the fastest, but safest plan."

Doranski and husband Steve's daughter—named Piper Lee—was born via cesarean section on Christmas Day. Over the next 16 days, Doranski underwent four brain surgeries and remained in the Intensive Care Unit. Piper, too, was hospitalized in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, treated for jaundice and low oxygen levels.

"They were incredible," Doranski said, of her teams at Rush. "I can’t say enough good things about Rush."

Piper went home on January 10; Doranski followed on January 11. Months later, both she and her daughter are happy and healthy, and she's hoping to connect with the person who called 911.

She is still a bit shaken that there were no indicators of her condition that day.

"No symptoms," she said. "If I had felt weird, I would have stopped, I would have called somebody, I would have gotten back in the car. I didn’t feel anything.

"It’s very unsettling to have a missing piece to my puzzle. I know what happened from waking up in the ambulance, until I went home. But that initial part is just blank."

The C-section, Doranski said, had been planned—her son Raymond had been delivered via one, as well—but she's heartbroken that she also doesn't remember much of her daughter's arrival.

"It’s just a little sad because this was my last baby," she said, "and I don’t remember anything from her brith.

"I don’t remember meeting her, her first cry. I don’t even remember meeting her the next day. I remember meeting her four days later."

Still, she is just grateful to have lived, and to not have experienced any neurologic deficiencies.

"To come out of this with no deficits is truly a miracle," she said. "I can still walk, talk—still live my life as normal."

She wants the caller to know they saved one, if not two, lives that day.

"Without that person calling the paramedics, they said that people with the aneurysm often don’t make it," Doranski said. "They don’t make it to an ambulance."

She's hopeful she'll find the caller via social media or word of mouth.

"An immense amount of gratitude," Doranski said, of how she feels toward them. "My daughter would not be alive—I certainly would not be alive—had it not been for somebody calling to get me help.

"I just want the person who made the call to know that I am forever grateful for their efforts to help me."

If you are the caller, or know the caller, email Patch at lauren.traut@patch.com.