The pregnant mom-of-five spent 139 days in the hospital. The mother reportedly suffered life-threatening effects of COVID-19. The doctors say it’s a miracle she’s alive. When she was 25 weeks pregnant, about five weeks into her ECMO course, she showered clots through her body and had three strokes as well as a heart attack all in a 24-hour period. Doctors said the pregnant mom also had seizures while in a coma.
The mother of five, Diana Crouch, named her baby after one doctor at Texas Children’s Hospital who had faith she would make it. She named the little baby Cameron.
The woman has been fighting for her life after being admitted to Texas Children’s Pavilion for Women in August.
Dr. Michael Belfort, Obstetrician and Gyn Chief at Texas Children’s Hospital, reportedly said: “She presented here at 18 weeks and came directly into our Intensive Care Unit in a desperate condition with COVID. It was recognized that she needed to be ventilated, but unfortunately, her condition progressed rapidly to where she needed Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation or ECMO, and that is basically a lung machine.”
According to reports, when Crouch was 25 weeks pregnant (five weeks into her ECMO course), she showered clots through her body and had three strokes as well as a heart attack all in a 24-hour period.
Doctors said the pregnant mom also had seizures while in a coma. While all of this was going on, her husband, Chris, was able to take time from work as a HCSO deputy to be at her side, with their four other children home with her parents.
COVID-19 protocol meant if her husband left, he couldn’t go back to the hospital and the balance was emotionally challenging.
Unfortunately, when Diana’s health declined with a collapsed lung and infection, her medical team decided it was time to deliver her baby at 32-weeks into her pregnancy. According to reports, the newborn baby did incredibly well and only spent a few more weeks in the hospital.
Chris turned to prayer and support from Dr. Cameron Dezfulian, a Medical Director of adults in ICU at Texas Children’s Hospital.
Chris reportedly said: “He was one of the only doctors who gave me any hope as far as she’s going to make it. I’m not knocking any other doctor or anything, but they’d say, I don’t know, we’ll wait and see, we hope this works. We’ll see, just keep praying and just keep your fingers crossed and all that, but Doc Cameron was just like, we’re going to get through this. I know we are, and he was the only one. There were a lot of dark days.”
Dr. Cameron Dezfulian said: “I really believe, and he believes, that God was behind this. I mean, we really believe this. It was a big, miraculous thing. I will forever look at this and say, Wow, this I got to be a part of a miracle. I mean, it was incredible.”
The powerful bond between the husband and Dr. Cameron Dezfulian is what prompted this couple to name their newborn, Cameron after their loving and caring doctor.
After the baby was born, the mother-of-five was expecting to need a lung transplant, but she rapidly got better.
Diana reportedly said: “I didn’t even remember being sick. Like I don’t remember not being able to breathe. I went months without eating, months without taking a shower, months without seeing my kids, so my family is everything to me now. I mean, not that it wasn’t, but you just cherish every more morning, every night, every screaming child, like even what they do wrong. You just look at it differently.”
The family said they weren’t vaccinated when Diana was hospitalized. But, they are now fully vaccinated and encourage other pregnant moms to do the same. Their doctors say pregnant women are safest with a vaccine.
Dr. Michael Belfort reportedly said: “For the sake of your children and the sake of your loved ones, get vaccinated! There is no truth to the misinformation that the vaccine causes malformation or affects fertility in any way. We simply have not seen bad effects that outweigh the benefits of being vaccinated.”