Mom Dies from ‘Complicated’ C-Section After Giving Birth to Healthy Twins

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On what should have been one of the happiest days of his life — the birth of his twins — Dustin Sisneros is grieving the loss of his girlfriend, the babies’ mother. Sara Sewald, 26, died May 29 after undergoing surgery shortly after giving birth.

The Colorado couple had already welcomed their twins -- a boy and a girl -- via C-section when doctors told Sisneros that there was a complication.

But the new dad said doctors assured him it wasn’t serious so he wasn't immediately alarmed. “They had mentioned that she had had a little bit of bleeding, you know, and they were going to do what they could to stop it,” he told KKTV 11. “So, you know, I wasn’t really too nervous."

"They said not to worry, it’s kind of normal and we have it under control,“ he added. After the C-section, Sewald was taken to the ICU and given blood and oxygen. Doctors then “sedated her and prepared for her surgery to get her, you know, back to health,” Sisneros recalled.

But Sewald never woke up from the surgery.

“It was just a complicated surgery. It’s hard to ask a lot of the details about what had happened,” Sisneros said.

Sewald’s half-brother, Justin Spellman, told the Gazette that his sister had been suffering from preeclampsia, and doctors were unable to stop her bleeding after the C-section.

Sisneros is raising their twin babies, named Charlotte and Ryan, on his own.

Since the death of his longtime love, Sisneros has been reflecting on their life together.

“It was almost love at first sight,” he shared with KKTV 11. “I waited just a little while to go ahead and ask her to be my girlfriend. But, from the moment we first hung out that night I knew that I really liked her and I could tell instantly that she had the biggest heart.”

Sisneros and Sewald had been together more than three years when they learned that they were going to become parents and then that they would be welcoming twins.

"When we found out it was twins it was kind of overwhelming but we were really excited for our blessings,” Sisneros said.

Months into the pregnancy, Sewald went to a routine checkup where a doctor told her he noticed swelling and that the babies would have to be delivered via C-section the next morning.

“We woke up that morning and we were both super excited to go into the delivery room,” Sisneros said.

“I gave her a big hug and kiss before she went into the delivery room," Sisneros said. "They took her in, and I went and got all of my scrubs on, and they took us into the delivery room … it was the beginning of an amazing journey.”

The babies remain in the hospital, and Sisneros said they are helping him cope with the loss of their mother.

"I’ve been down to the hospital every single day. I’ve got to spend a lot of time with them," he said. "It just makes my heart happy whenever I see them. I go in there and I talk to them and they kind of — they know my voice and they open their eyes and they’re just the most beautiful thing. Charlotte resembles Sara in so many ways.”

Sisneros has the support of family and friends, who are rallying around him and have started a GoFundMe page to help the young father in the difficult years ahead. “As a now single parent of two, Dustin will need all the support he can get from friends and family to help him get ahead emotionally, as well as financially,” a statement on the site read.

The couple had recently moved in with Sisneros’ parents a month ago. “She would have been a great mom,” Sisneros’ mother, Jolene Sisneros, told the Gazette.

“She gave her life for them, and that’s what she would’ve wanted to do.”

The grieving father says he will fight to keep Sewald’s memory alive.

“Every time I see them, I tell them their mommy loves them, and they either give me a smile so I know that she’s signifying that she’s watching and she’s in the room with us and she’s right there,” Sisneros told KKTV 11.


“It’s just so amazing. I’ll be sure her memory lives on forever,” he said.