DOCTORS SAVE PREGNANT MOM DYING FROM COVID-19 AND HER PREMATURE BABY

Mom required emergency c-section to save 28-week-old baby while in coma on ventilator

Blanca Rodriguez met her daughter Jade for the first time separated by a facemask, incubator, tubes and wires — both had been fighting for their lives against COVID-19 just weeks earlier.

Blanca continues to express gratitude for the people at Children’s Hospital. “I’m so thankful for my life and my daughter’s life,” she says.

The 32-year-old mom from Adelanto, California, was 28 weeks pregnant in July 2020, when she was rushed to Children’s Hospital with severe upper respiratory issues and difficulty breathing.

Doctors from both the intensive care unit teams and the obstetrics teams fought against several issues. Blanca tested positive for COVID-19 and had also developed acute respiratory distress syndrome, where fluid gathered in her lungs. The syndrome has a 50% mortality rate in pregnant women. She continued to deteriorate. Blanca was barely breathing on her own and needing heavy oxygen assistance. Her lungs couldn’t handle the strain of exhaustion from trying to breathe, and her immune system didn’t have enough strength to fight the disease and support her baby’s life.

She needed to be intubated and put on a ventilator. Doctors hoped this would allow her body to rest, recover and give her baby time to grow. Minutes before being intubated, Blanca said a tearful goodbye to her family over FaceTime. No one knew what the next weeks, days or even hours would hold, but there seemed to be a certainty that her battle would be uphill.

The ICU team placed Blanca into a medically induced coma, intubated her and began working on improving her oxygen intake. However, within hours, Blanca’s baby began to lose oxygen herself and went into distress.

Nearly 25 people, including doctors and nurses from the NICU, ICU, labor and delivery, and anesthesia teams crowded into an ICU room to deliver Blanca’s baby via an emergency c-section while keeping them both alive.

Jade was delivered in the early hours of the morning. While Jade didn’t have COVID-19, both she and her mom remained in critical condition.

As days went by, Blanca’s miraculous recovery began to unfold. Even though her fever was still at 102, her breathing was improving and her entire demeanor seemed more positive; she was even trying to laugh. That same day, Blanca was taken off the ventilator.

She was released from the hospital, finally reuniting with the rest of her family after weeks of isolation and separation. Jade remained under the dedicated and watchful care of the NICU team before finally going home several months later.