As exciting as it is to give birth, it is equally as complicated and can be dangerous. We want to believe that nothing will go wrong in the delivery room, but sometimes complications arise that can be life-threatening. When Marisa Christie checked into a Texas hospital for the scheduled Cesarean birth of her triplets, she expected everything to go smoothly. But soon after delivery, she nearly lost her life.
Christie told Today she had no idea what had happened until a week later when she finally regained consciousness. It’s an incredible story, and she feels lucky that everyone survived.
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Christie experienced an amniotic fluid embolism.
Christie told Today she had just delivered her babies when something went wrong. “The doctors had pulled all three (babies) out. Actually, they were resting them on my stomach to do a delayed cord clamping,” she said. “My arms flew up, and that was when my heart stopped.”
She experienced AFE, which according to the Cleveland Clinic is incredibly dangerous: “Amniotic fluid embolism (AFE) is a rare and life-threatening complication that occurs when a pregnant person gets amniotic fluid into their bloodstream just before, during or immediately after childbirth.”
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Luckily, her doctor knew exactly what happened.
Anesthesiologist Dr. Ricardo Mora told Today that Christie turned gray, and he knew something was terribly wrong.
“It’s pretty catastrophic. When it occurs, it’s about 80%, 85% fatal,” Mora said. “I asked Dr. Samuel what she had done. She related to me that she had just started pulling the placenta out and that’s usually the time when this occurs — the separation of the placenta and uterus.”
Mora called a code blue and they began CPR. “She essentially lost what we consider her whole blood volume,” Mora told the morning show. “We replaced her blood volume. So, for 45 minutes, she was clinically dead.”
Christie spent a week in a coma.
Mora checked in on her frequently to be sure she improved. “You can do the best CPR in the world, but if you don’t get enough blood to the brain, essentially they are alive but with brain damage,” he told Today. “I needed her to live to raise her kids. So, it was a personal thing for me.”
Then one day, the mom woke up.
But Christie was very confused. She told Today that her husband had to tell her everything.
“My husband was like, ‘Hey, so we had the babies. They’re healthy and great,'” she shared with the morning show. “I was absolutely terrified. How could I not remember having my babies?”
Their daughters, Charlotte, Kendall, and Collins, are perfectly healthy, but it was an adjustment.
“I remember thinking, ‘I don’t know these babies. This is very strange. They feel like they’re not real. They feel like they’re not mine,'” she said. “They were already over a week old by the time I had met them. It took a little bit to get that connection with them.”
But now, nine weeks later, the family is happy and settled in. Christie said she shared her story to hopefully help others.
“It’s rare, but it does happen,” she added. “There were so many miracles that led up to me living instead of dying and we’re grateful.”
