The last thing that I remember is I heard someone say O.R. and then
everything went black again. My mom had to ask me do you want to see your baby,
and I just had no memory of anything. It hurts a lot because sometimes the girls...
They ask when she's coming home,
maternal deaths and injuries actually started several years ago in the United
States we were one of the wealthiest countries in the world we have one of
the most expensive healthcare systems in the world and women in this country were
dying at rates far higher than other wealthy countries it's estimated that
about 600 to 800 new moms die every year in the United States more than 50,000
women a year the CDC estimates suffer very serious harms and what we learned
is that a lot of the suffering is preventable
the day I have Lucy I remember I was very excited but just you know just very
scared of a new mom
I just started feeling nauseous and bad headache in snap
and it was essentially check your blood pressure over the weekend and if it's
over 150 it'll come in on Monday my wife Marie confirmed my blood
pressure is over 150 right now and they reiterated the same instructions
we just didn't know any better I remember feeling like I kind of a surge
of my head and I didn't know what was wrong
these fingers will actually loosened up a little bit but mostly it's it's a very
tense grip so I'm just working on trying to like release my fingers so to pick up
almost a lot of times I just have to kind of move my hands around
they took grip things I was angry because we we've worked so hard to up to
this point to finally get pregnant and be ready for the baby to come I just
missed a lot of her baby and it was very difficult for me I just went that back
hmm medical societies have worn for years
that women whose blood pressures go above a certain danger level must get
immediate treatment and the result is that women are suffering strokes
needlessly yet we found that even being a medical professional wasn't enough to
protect several of the women we interviewed
I was terrified yeah he started crying he was healing you everything was gonna
be fine that I'd seen a hundred c-sections and that it it was gonna be
okay boy was she wrong yeah you know it was
amazing to see when he was born and to you know have him right next to me and
to smell him and see him and touch him and I just wanted to hold him and so it
was just honestly just kind of anxious I
was really scared because I knew that that that I shouldn't have been feeling
that way to be honest it kind of just turned into a big blur because I kept
going just in and out of it the day shift nurse came in and you know she
didn't feel comfortable with kind of where my vitals were we're going and how
I was doing so she thought it was necessary to call a rapid response
basically remember I'm saying that you know she was bleeding and that they were
going to take her down to the CT scan
she just kept getting worse and worse at one point in time I walked into the ICU
room and the doctor had pulled her packing and I buried I've never seen so
much blood they finally finally got her stabilized to where they were transport
her the two surgeons came out and said that basically the only way that they
could be sure to stop the bleeding was to go ever distracted me
I was definitely devastated by losing my uterus but at the same time I was also
thankful to be alive and that my baby was okay
we were thinking about names about a month and she said what about sir really
likes it really needs prayer
and Sheila that means she's like we did it and she was smiling at that point
that's like okay good I got a smile out of here she said she's I'm just tired
my head hurts a little bit the signs of her looming disaster were apparent even
before she was discharged from the hospital with her baby nurses kept
recording blood pressure levels that were above the national danger level
phone ringing on the organ and I said hey honey I said you okay
she said yeah but um she said my head were there and they won't stop let me
cancel I had already told everyone at the church and said hey listen I'm gonna
take my wife back to the ER no that's enough you guys pray for
everybody's being seen but her and she was looking at the wall I said sweetie
look at me and she just kind of was trying to look like that's almost like
she couldn't get it together and I went out there I ran out there to the desk
and I said hey my wife needs help in here
I said can you can you help her
it seems like a nightmare and I just need to wake up just tried to be a
little fathers ha
all of this may be shocking to Americans but it's been an open secret within the
hospital industry women who are experiencing childbirth emergencies that
very few of them actually got the treatments they were supposed to get be
very diligent and not just openly trust what any one doctor is telling you
the biggest thing is like I said just not being afraid to ask questions not
being afraid to speak up if they think that something doesn't feel or seem
right
I told us it mommy mommy went to heaven and I said well she's gonna stay in
heaven and she's just gonna she's gonna watch us I said you can't see mommy I
said bye mommy can see you
you