Panicking staff members at a long-term care facility scrambled to save a baby born to a woman in a vegetative state amid their shock to learn she was pregnant, according to newly released dramatic 911 audio.

The five minutes of audio from the December 29 birth starts with a frantic nurse at the Phoenix, Arizona facility yelling, “The baby’s turning blue! The baby’s turning blue!”

“One of our patients just had a baby, and we had no idea she was pregnant,” the nurse said.

An emergency responder asked how far along the mother was in her pregnancy. The nurse, still sounding stunned, said that nobody would know.

“This is a complete surprise. We were not expecting this,” she said.

The paramedic asked if anyone was doing CPR and described how to do proper compressions with two fingers in the centre of the baby’s chest. The nurse said workers were using a resuscitation bag.

A few minutes later, the nurse expressed relief, saying “thank God” the baby was now breathing and crying.

The woman and the baby boy have been recovering at a hospital. Their conditions have not been released.

The 29-year-old woman, who has been incapacitated since age three was sexually assaulted, police say, and they are trying to track down the assailant.

Investigators are collecting DNA from the facility’s male employees and anyone else who may have had contact with her.