TORONTO -- An Abbotsford, B.C. woman who was placed in a coma due to complications from COVID-19 and gave birth while in the coma is speaking publicly for the first time about the experience and her recovery.
In an interview with CTV News, Gillian McIntosh said she and her newborn son Travis are back home and doing well, and want to thank the hospital staff for saving both of their lives.
“I’m incredibly grateful for everybody at the hospital who has helped get me back on track and make sure that my son was healthy and that we’re all here together,” she said in the interview.
“Every nurse from the beginning to the end … they were all so amazing. I can’t say enough about true support and genuine care that they all gave to me.”
McIntosh tested positive for COVID-19 on Nov. 6 while nearly 36 weeks pregnant, and was admitted to hospital a few days later. On Nov. 10, doctors decided she needed a ventilator and performed an emergency C-section as her condition deteriorated.
“From that point on, I don’t remember full details of even leaving the ER, but then waking up four weeks later having had my son,” she said.
Baby Travis would spend the next 15 days in the Abbotsford Hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit while his mother remained in a coma.
“I woke up and the nurse told me that I had been in a coma for four weeks, and that they had delivered the baby by emergency C-section and that I had a son, and that was pretty exciting because we didn’t know what the gender was,” she said.
“From that point on, I spent my time recovering in the hospital, relearning to walk again, the things you take for granted every day, you had to redo.”
McIntosh was finally able to leave the hospital on Christmas Eve, where she is now recovering and taking care of her baby.
“I missed the first six weeks of his life, but I also missed that first six weeks of that painful new parent sleeping routine,” she joked.
Overall, McIntosh said Travis is doing well.
“He’s great,” she said. “He’s four months old today and he’s thriving. He’s quite the little butterball and growing very nicely.”
As for herself, McIntosh said her voice has become raspy due to the extended intubation but her normal voice will hopefully return this year. She’s also doing physio therapyand occupational therapy several times a week as she regains her strength.
“I’m basically healthy except my lungs do have some issues, but that will be an ongoing situation,” she said.
She only just stopped usinga cane last week, but says she’s “taking every day as it comes.”
“The fact that I’ve been recovering so well to this point is really a huge miracle,” she said.
With files from CTV News Vancouver
