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A nurse who has no memory of giving birth as she fought for her life in hospital with Covid-19 recounted the ‘special moment’ she was able to hold her daughter for the first time after almost three month.
Returning home earlier this month, Eva Gicain was able to celebrate a late Christmas with her new daughter and her medical assistant husband.
“When I held Elleana for the first time, I didn’t want to let go. It was such a special moment ”
Eva gicain
Ms Gicain, who is a nurse at an NHS hospital in London, was rushed to hospital at 34 weeks pregnant at the end of October, after contracting a severe case of coronavirus while she was on leave.
As her condition continued to deteriorate, she underwent an emergency Cesarean and gave birth to baby Elleana prematurely at 35 weeks.
She was then transferred to the Royal Papworth Hospital in Cambridge where she was admitted to intensive care and placed on ECMO (extracorporeal membrane oxygenation) to resume working her lungs.
Treatment is currently used for coronavirus patients as a last resort when other forms of ventilation have failed, said the trust that runs the hospital.
At 30, Ms Gicain was one of the youngest patients to receive an ECMO at the hospital, which is one of five centers in England responsible for providing treatment to adults with acute respiratory failure.
Eva gicain
Ms. Gicain has no recollection of having given birth or having been transferred.
But three weeks after being supported by ECMO, she was released from intensive care and transferred to a retreat room just before Christmas.
This is where his memory of the ordeal begins. “The first thing I remember was just a few days before Christmas and I was told where I was, what I had been through and that Elleana was fine,” Ms. Gicain said.
She recounted how she was able to regularly video call her husband Limuel and her baby, including on Christmas Day.
“Not being able to see them in person and touch them was so difficult; I was determined to get home as soon as possible, ”she added.
While Ms Gicain was unconscious in the hospital 50 miles from the family home, baby Elleana was also in the neonatal intensive care unit at Basildon University Hospital for three weeks.
But at the time, Limuel, also 30, was unable to visit any of them as he was also facing his own ordeal with Covid-19 at home.
“I was very sick, so I couldn’t leave the house, let alone visit my wife or my daughter,” he said.
“It was so horrible that the three of us were in separate places at a time when we should all have been together.
He was finally able to visit their baby just in time for his release on November 21.
After being hospitalized for 76 days, Ms Gicain was sent home to reunite with her family on January 12, accompanied by applause from hospital staff.
“I feel a lot better now,” she said a few days after returning home.
“When I first held Elleana I didn’t want to let go. It was such a special moment.
She added, “Life is unpredictable, and now we can’t wait to be a little family and spend time together.”
Nine days after arriving home, they celebrated a late Christmas day together.
Image and video credit: Royal Papworth Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
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