[ad_1]
A Wisconsin woman on the mend after a severe episode of COVID-19 kissed her baby girl for the first time on Thursday after giving birth almost three months ago.
Kelsey Townsend was diagnosed with the new virus when she was nine months pregnant last October, according to a press release from UW Health. Hospital officials said the woman was placed in a medically induced coma, in which doctors delivered her daughter, Lucy, in a Caesarean section on November 4.
As the newborn child returned home to the family, Townsend’s condition deteriorated rapidly and she needed 75 days on a ventilator and another machine to support her lungs, the statement said.
“Particularly at the beginning, it was not known if we were going to be able to support her through this, and eventually there was still a lot of uncertainty as to how best to get her out of the hospital and home. safely”. UW Health cardiothoracic surgeon and director of the ECMO program, Dr Daniel McCarthy, said in a video released by the hospital.
MOM WITH CORONAVIRUS GIVES BIRTH TO TWINS DURING COMA
SEVERE COVID-19 IN PREGNANT WOMEN INCREASES RISK OF PREVENTIVE BIRTH, DEATH: STUDY
In December, doctors alerted the family that Townsend would need a double lung transplant to survive. Her husband, Derek Townsend, broke the news to her on Christmas Eve.
“Telling her that she’s so sick, she won’t come home without it… that was difficult,” said Derek Townsend, FOX6 Milwaukee reported. However, just days after Townsend’s name was put on the transplant list, she began a miraculous recovery that left her doctors with no explanation.
“We don’t know precisely what caused his lungs to start to recover after nearly two months of severe illness,” said Dr Dan McCarthy, UW Health cardiothoracic surgeon and director of the ECMO program, according to the outlet. .
GET THE FOX NEWS APP
Townsend’s name was taken off the transplant list and she was transferred out of the intensive care unit. Hospital officials said Townsend was released from Madison Teaching Hospital on January 27 and finally reunited with her husband and four children, including Lucy, now almost three months old.
A video released by the hospital shows a medical worker taking Kelsey out of the hospital, where she was greeted by cheering staff. She had her hand on her heart and kissed her tearful husband right outside the hospital entrance. At home, his son gave him a pint of his favorite ice cream.
“His progress over the past two weeks has been quite miraculous and while we don’t know exactly what to expect, the possibility of a full or near full recovery, a return to normal life is very real,” McCarthy said.
[ad_2]
Source link