Callahan's Birth Story
Callahan’s Birth Story: Part 3
July 17th
By the next morning, I was at 7cm and by 11am I was at 9cm. The only issue was that Callahan was facing sunny side up which is a more difficult position to deliver, so they were attempting to get him to turn. At around 12:30 my OBGYN came in to check me and let me know I was 10 centimeters “ready to push!” I was definitely nervous about not having enough energy to push after laboring for so long and barely sleeping, but I was so excited to meet my little boy. The doctor left the room and said she would be back shortly to deliver my baby.
My bed was completely upright, so I was leaning against the back with my legs out straight. I told the nurse I wasn’t feeling well, which she said was normal during this stage of labor. As she went to go get me a bag I continued to say I didn’t feel well, but there was growing concern in my voice. I then started to say that something was wrong with my heart. The monitors weren’t registering anything, but I started shouting that something was wrong with my heart. The monitors picked it up, started to alert and then I was out. I slumped over in my bed with my eyes open but nothing behind them. My husband started yelling in my face to get me to wake up and then he ran into the hallway shouting for a doctor. At the same time, my nurse hit the code blue alarm, an alarm that very rarely gets pushed in L&D. People came flooding into the room, pushing Steve into the corner. By sheer luck there happened to be conference full of critical care personnel on the L&D floor that day. The quick (and life-saving!) decision was made to take me right to the OR. I was hurriedly disconnecting from every wire and IV as they wheeled me down the hall, leaving Steve back in the room. Steve was left to wait in my room alone until two nurses came to sit with him. There were nurses and techs in the hallway pointing the way to my OR so that the necessary people could get there as quickly as possible.
Once in the OR, CPR was initiated and they began an emergency c-section. The baby was out within 6 minutes of my code, which saved his life. It was a miracle that he came out crying and was somehow unaffected by my collapse. Once the baby was out, the attention turned towards me. I was dying. They successfully resuscitated me after the c-section, but I coded again a few minutes later. After the second resuscitation, I began to bleed and A LOT. I went into what is called DIC, which is when your blood no longer clots. They inserted a balloon into my uterus to try to stem the bleeding from that location.
The OBGYN came to update my family. She told them the baby was out and he was completely healthy, even though I had coded while he was still inside. She explained that I, unfortunately, was not okay, I had suffered an Amniotic Fluid Embolism. She said they were giving me clotting fluids for the DIC and that I was in critical condition, but she was hopeful they could stabilize me.
Twenty minutes later things took a turn for the worst. The OBGYN updated that it was extremely critical because they could no longer stop the bleeding and asked my family to please pray. I was bleeding from everywhere and there was no way to stop it. Massive transfusion protocol had been initiated, but the blood was pouring out as fast as it was going in (I ended up with a total of 143 units of blood product transfused by the end of this ordeal). More than 5 Liters of blood were collected through the catheter attached to the balloon that was attempting to stop the bleeding from my uterus. I was also struggling with oxygenation because my heart and lungs weren’t working at full capacity. The decision was made to put me on ECMO (a form of life support).
