Nearly three months after giving birth while in a coma with Covid-19, a Wisconsin woman met her newborn child for the first time last week.
Kelsey Townsend, 32, was recently discharged from a hospital in Madison, Wisc., And reunited with her husband and four children, including her daughter Lucy. She said it was “incredible” to hold her daughter when she returned home.
“I waited a long time to meet her, and I was very happy,” Townsend told NBC News.
At the end of October, she was nine months pregnant when she was diagnosed with Covid-19. According to her husband, Derek Townsend, Townsend, who had no conditions shortly after contracting the virus, was admitted to a nearby hospital for shortness of breath, cough and pneumonia. There she was placed in a medically induced coma and gave birth to Lucy, who tested negative for the virus and later joined the rest of the family at home.
Townsend’s health deteriorated rapidly and she was transferred to UW Health in Madison, where she spent several months on an ECMO machine and a ventilator.
“There was not much certainty that she would come home. There were many evenings that I called some of the doctors and said they did not think she was going to go through the night – it was an emotional roller coaster,” Derek said.
By December, doctors said Townsend needed a double lung transplant to survive, and she was placed on a waiting list. Derek said he made the news to his wife on Christmas Eve, saying “she is not getting better and cannot come home without the transplant.”
Within days of being added to the waiting list, Townsend’s lung condition improved significantly and by mid-January she was moved out of the intensive care unit and weaned an ECMO machine and a ventilator. She also no longer accepts offers for a double lung transplant.
Dr. Daniel P. McCarthy, UT Health cardiothoracic surgeon and director of the ECMO program, who looked after Townsend closely, said he did not know what caused her lungs to bounce back after struggling with the virus for months.
“We really do not quite understand why some people recover and others do not … or what causes the lungs to suddenly start recovering and healing in a way that enables us to make the progress we have made , “McCarthy said.
On January 27, Townsend was discharged from the hospital and is currently on supplemental oxygen and receiving treatment for physiotherapy.
‘Her strength during this whole process is what inspired our whole family to have strength. “She was inside and out many times, but she made it through,” Derek said.
While it will take Townsend months to recover and regain strength, McCarthy said he is optimistic she will fully recover from Covid-19.
“Kelsey has made significant progress … she’s really inspiring because of the way she has endured all these challenges,” McCarthy added.