Doctors work tirelessly to save the life of a young woman and her unborn child.
birthday, on 9 July, expecting mother Callan Jacobs began feeling unwell. Her father, Kevin Jacobs, had also been severely ill that week.Callan phoned her obstetrician, Dr Kerry Sherwood, complaining of full-body aches and fatigue.Callan Jacobs on 15 July, a day before being put on the ventilator. This mask was pumping oxygen at an extreme rate, but was still not working.
Callan in bed still with the ventilator on 26 July, three days after waking up. Note the extreme facial swelling from the bilateral pneumothoraxes. “We called Dr Sherwood and were told to get to Kingsbury hospital [in Cape Town] immediately,” says Callan.Upon her arrival at the hospital, a team of nurses, along with Sherwood, were waiting for her in full personal protective equipment: scrubs underneath plastic aprons, disposable gowns, theatre cap, booties overshoes, goggles, visor, two layers of gloves, N95 masks — no skin exposed.
Callan’s health had deteriorated rapidly and drastically at that stage, explains Sherwood. The priority was to keep Callan alive.“I could not get a drip up on her and I tried several times. All the veins kept collapsing on me,” says Sherwood.Callan was placed in the Intensive Care Unit , where attending physician Dr Asheen Haripersad was on duty.
Picken explains that Callan was in severe respiratory failure after developing pneumonia in both lungs and her blood-oxygen saturation levels were at 50% despite high-flow nasal oxygen. To put this in perspective, a normal, healthy saturation level is at least 95%.Picken adds that Callan was by far the youngest patient at Kingsbury Hospital who had “such severe Covid that she needed to be put on a ventilator”.
“I know nobody can come into the Covid ward, but he told me to come in since I had tested positive for Covid anyway. I am only gathering now that he was trying to tell me that I may just want to come and say goodbye to my daughter,” says Helga. Doctors had to release the air by creating two incisions between Callan’s ribs, which made ventilating her even more challenging.
The majority of pregnant women who contract Covid-19 will have mild to moderate symptoms; however, pregnancy has been classified as a high-risk factor when it comes to developing complications, something neither Callan nor her mother was aware of. “I said I will sell my house and my car, but my daughter will go to a good hospital. I believe that is one of the reasons why she survived, because they gave her great care and the way they have been taking care of Covid patients with such a great success rate is comforting to me.”
The results suggest pregnant women with Covid-19 are 50% more likely to be hospitalised and are at increased risk for ICU admission. Pregnant women with severe Covid-19 were also 70% more likely to need ventilators.
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