Coronavirus-infected Washington state woman gives birth while in induced coma
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A Washington woman infected with the novel coronavirus says she is a “miracle walking” after giving birth to a baby girl while in a medically induced coma.
Angela Primachenko, 27, of Vancouver, was 33 weeks pregnant when she tested positive for COVID-19. Eight days later, she was placed on a ventilator and in a medically induced coma — all while doctors at Legacy Salmon Creek Medical Center induced labor to give her and her baby a chance at life.
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"I wasn’t sure where I was. I was very confused. I didn’t have a belly anymore, [and I] didn't know where my baby was. I was in isolation [and] hadn’t been able to see my husband," Primachenko recalled to local news station KPTV.
"Obviously, nobody expected that I was going to get that sick, so no, absolutely not, I did not expect to deliver my child,'' the new mom also told TODAY. “After all the medication and everything I just woke up and all of a sudden, I didn't have my belly anymore. It was just extremely mind-blowing."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Though Primachenko was taken off of the ventilator on April 6 and was cleared to go home over the weekend, she has yet to see her newborn daughter, Ava, who remains in the hospital's neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). The young girl has tested negative for the novel virus, but Primachenko must wait for the all-clear — two consecutive tests taken 24 hours apart that are both negative — before she can hold her daughter.
Her husband, David, and Emily, her 11-month-old daughter, however, have been able to see Ava in the NICU, while Primachenko has been able to meet her daughter via FaceTime.
In the meantime, Primachenko said she is happy to be recovering.
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"I’m just taking it [one] day at a time and just trying to regain my strength and core and muscles," Primachenko told KPTV, adding her daughter’s name is particularly fitting.
“[Ava] means breath of life," Primachenko said. "I think Ava is such a beautiful name. We did not expect to go down this road, but she ended up being our little breath of life."