Jennifer Choate’s being pregnant was uncomplicated — till it wasn’t. Two and a half weeks earlier than her March 6, 2025 due date, the 27-year-old went to the emergency room on the College of Maryland Baltimore Washington Medical Heart after experiencing complications and hypertension.
Medical doctors thought Choate is likely to be affected by preeclampsia and induced labor. Her fiancée rushed to her aspect. Choate chatted with him and her care staff as her labor progressed usually. Immediately, she was struck with an excruciating stress in her chest and head.
“It was not painful however it felt like somebody was squeezing me as laborious as they probably may. I felt like my head was going to blow up,” Choate stated. She turned to Arianna Bortle, the labor and supply nurse at her aspect. “I stated, ‘One thing has gone improper. I do not really feel good.'”
Bortle had solely been a nurse for 18 months however Choate’s statements made her hair stand on finish. She instantly ran to get her superiors. As they re-entered the room, Choate’s coronary heart stopped.
“She was speaking to me, after which she wasn’t,” Bortle stated. “She did not have a pulse.”
Jennifer Choate
What’s an amniotic fluid embolism?
What Choate had skilled was an amniotic fluid embolism, docs stated. The situation is a “tremendous uncommon obstetric occasion” when amniotic fluid enters an individual’s bloodstream and “units off a cascade of occasions” that causes “primarily all main organs of the mother’s physique to close down,” stated Dr. Nicole Scott, an affiliate professor of scientific obstetrics & gynecology at Indiana College’s College of Drugs.
Medical doctors do not know what causes the “life-threatening occasion,” Scott stated. It happens in about 1 in 40,000 U.S. births, in accordance with the Cleveland Clinic. They normally occur shortly after an individual’s water breaks, and don’t have any warning indicators, Scott stated. Sufferers rapidly decompensate, with the center failing and different organs shutting down. The physique’s clotting course of malfunctions, inflicting intense bleeding. Folks might expertise strokes and seizures.
About half of the ladies who’ve an amniotic fluid embolism die, in accordance with Scott. The mortality fee for his or her infants varies relying on the stage of labor an individual is in when the embolism happens.
Survivors normally undergo lifelong problems, in accordance with Scott. A scarcity of blood to the mind might depart a affected person with long-lasting neurological points, and blood clots may cause musculoskeletal points. Some persons are paralyzed. Medical doctors might have to carry out a hysterectomy. Survivors additionally “have a big quantity of trauma,” Scott stated.
Jennifer Choate 
A combat to get well
Choate was resuscitated, and her daughter was efficiently delivered through cesarean part. Medical doctors used blood transfusions, clamps and a uterine tamponade to manage Choate’s blood loss and stabilize her, stated Dr. Pablo Argeles, the chair of obstetrics and gynecology at UM BWMC.
Medical professionals from a number of disciplines collaborated on the right way to preserve Choate alive, Argeles stated. She was positioned on a ventilator and transferred to the College of Maryland Medical Heart for superior intensive care.
When Choate awakened, she had no thought what had occurred or the place her child was. She assumed the worst.
“I used to be like, ‘If I’ve a tube in my throat, there is no means she survived no matter occurred … there is no means {that a} child that’s measuring 7 or 8 kilos is alive proper now,'” Choate stated.
After an agonizing wait, Choate was informed that her child was alive and effectively. After a physician defined what had occurred, Choate understood that she was fortunate: Each she and her daughter had survived, and he or she wouldn’t have long-term medical problems.
Jennifer Choate 
As Choate recovered, she was haunted by her ordeal. She Googled amniotic fluid embolisms and stated she was horrified by the statistics she discovered. She was in a position to briefly see her child however was distraught about lacking a lot time along with her. Being aside damage greater than her restoration, she stated.
“I used to be like, ‘I have to go residence. I’ve to go residence proper now. I must be a mother,'” Choate stated. “They saved telling me I used to be a miracle. I used to be like, ‘I do not care about being a miracle. I need to be a mother.'”
As employees weaned her off drugs and machines, Choate started to push herself. She practiced how she would maneuver her means into the tub or get up from a sofa. She wheeled her child’s bassinet across the restoration ground to indicate she was prepared to depart.
“It was laborious. It was the toughest factor I’ve ever carried out. It was painful, and I used to be crying. I used to be in a lot ache. However when you may have a child, all of that ache simply will get pushed to the aspect. My ache stage was 1000 over 10, and I didn’t care,” Choate stated.
Jennifer Choate 
The show labored. Choate was discharged after 9 days within the hospital.
“The one most vital factor”
When Choate arrived residence, the home was lined in so many playing cards, posters and child presents that she may barely acknowledge it. Her household supplied assist. Bortle, the nurse who realized one thing was improper, came visiting. Her daughter, now seven months outdated, is on her greatest conduct, Choate joked, and practising expertise like rolling and sitting up.
“She would not cry about actually something. I say ‘She is aware of what I have been via, so she’s taking it simple,” Choate teased.
At the same time as life continues on, Choate stated she thinks about her ordeal “each single day.”
“I’ve by no means taken my life without any consideration, however it’s scary to assume that something can occur,” Choate stated. “Generally I ponder, like, did this really occur to me? I virtually really feel like I am dwelling in a distinct universe.”
Jennifer Choate 
Love for her daughter washes away these troubled ideas rapidly.
“I acquired the one most vital factor out of my beginning and labor,” Choate stated. “My baby is alive.”
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