Mothers' Day: Woman Celebrates Motherhood After Giving Birth While in Coma
- This will be the first Mothers' Day for 29-year-old Serena Torres
- What stands out is the fact that she delivered last year while in an induced coma
- She missed death by a whisker courtesy of COVID-19 and waited four months to hold her baby for the very first time
In October last year, then 28-year-old Serena Torres became a mother while in a coma after having contracted Coronavirus.
Source: UGC
While at the hospital, Torres suffered lung, heart, and kidney failure and was in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) for two months.
Torres was six months pregnant when test results confirmed she was COVID-19 positive.
"It was a really scary and emotional point because there were so many unknowns," she said.
Even after testing positive, Torres was confident her robust medical history was strong enough to help her withstand the virus without much hustle.
Things, however, took a downward spiral and she was soon being kept alive with the help of a ventilator.
"Serena was certainly among the sickest of the sick," said Westchester Medical Center's Dr Dipak Chandy.
When her health deteriorated further, doctors decided to deliver her baby via cesarean section.
At the time of the delivery Torres was in a medically induced coma, but they managed to get out the baby, who has since been named Alessandra.
Alessandra weighed a mere four pounds and was put in the neonatal ICU for four weeks.
"Many nurses told me that there was one moment when I woke up from the sedation and I rocked my arm like I was trying to rock a baby, but I couldn't communicate. It was like I was asking, 'Where is my baby?" explained Torres.
Even after successfully giving birth, Torres was not allowed to hold her own baby for a whopping four months.
This is because she was not only too frail to hold anything heavy but was also not fully recovered from the other complications, among them blood clots that saw her toes amputated.
Furthermore, the risk of passing COVID-19 to the newborn was high, so she only interacted with her baby on video call.
"I will never forget that day in my life. I just started to do the ugly cry, when you're so happy that you don't even care," she recalled that day in February this year when she held Alessandra for the first time.
The first-time mother is back home with her husband and daughter and plans to have a mega celebration as she almost lost her life a few months ago.
Although she is still undergoing treatment and reeling from the aftereffects of the virus, she is thankful that she is alive to be a mother to Alessandra.
"I fought so hard to be a mom and to be here home with her," she expressed.
Source: YEN.com.gh
Edwin Lamptey Edwin’s goal is to drive YEN’s entertainment desk to become the go-to location for authentic entertainment news in Ghana and the reference point for viral foreign entertainment news. He will seek to entertain and say it as it is! He holds a degree in English, History and Religion and Human Values from the University of Cape Coast.
Aba Afful (Copyeditor) Maame Aba serves as a copy editor at YEN.com.gh. She naturally enjoys working with words and has an eye for quality content. She has a keen interest in cyberspace and wants to see YEN.com.gh produce more impactful, thought-provoking, and error-free content. Aba has five years of experience as a content writer, blogger, author, and proofreader. She graduated from the Ghana Institute of Journalism in 2017. She joined the team in 2021.
