Many pregnant mothers have considered the decision of whether to get the COVID-19 vaccine a difficult one. Such was the case for one 28-year-old mother in Texas, who decided not to get the vaccine for fear of what it might do to her baby. But after she contracted COVID-19 when she was 18-weeks pregnant, and ended up spending 139 days in the hospital, she is urging other pregnant mothers to get the vaccine. For Diana Crouch, that she survived COVID-19, despite all she went through, it is a miracle.
What Led to Diana Crouch’s 139 Days in the Hospital?
For their wedding anniversary in the end of July of 2021, Diana Crouch and her husband, 37-year-old Chris Crouch, traveled to Las Vegas from their home in Kingwood, Texas. They had set out to have a fun time, but Diana suffered from a “really bad headache” throughout their trip, which she had chalked up to early pregnancy symptoms.
However, when the couple arrived home, Diana began to develop a fever. Because she was 18-weeks pregnant, she sought medical help in order to ensure her baby would be okay. Although the doctors initially though Diana was dehydrated and told her to take Tylenol and up her water in-take, the pregnant mother’s symptoms continued.
Diana had previously survived COVID-19 with no serious symptoms; so it did not occur to her that the headache and fever could be due to that. However, her obstetrician recommended she visit the emergency room, and it was there that she found out she had COVID-19. The doctor in the ER initially didn’t consider her case a high concern; so he sent her home with orders to watch her oxygen levels, pulse, and fever.
By the first week of August, Diana’s condition hadn’t improved; so the couple returned to the ER and they found she had developed pneumonia. The ER sent her to Texas Children’s Pavilion for Women, where she was admitted for further treatment.
And her condition continued to get worse. Due to her pregnancy and the fact that the baby was not yet old enough to survive outside the womb, the hospital had to carefully consider both how to treat the mother to protect both her and the baby. Watch Diana’s full story on ABC’s Mycah Hatfield’s Instagram post:
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From ventilators, to medications, to extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) where they oxygenate the blood through removal, Diana’s medical team fought to choose the best treatment based on her unique situation. Due to several factors, she was at risk for blood clots, and she ended up having a heart attack, three strokes, multiple seizures, a hole in her heart that blew open, and was in a coma for some time.
Despite her 139 days in hospital, her condition did eventually improve and she survived COVID-19…