Nearly three months after Kelsey Townsend gave birth to her fourth child, the 32-year-old Wisconsin woman was finally face-to-face with her.
Lucy, now bright-eyed and alert, flashed her a smile.
“Hi. I love you. I love you so much. Yes, I missed you,” Kelsey Townsend told her.
Townsend was in a medically induced coma with COVID-19 when she gave birth to Lucy via caesarean section on November 4, not long after she was admitted to SSM Health St. Mary’s Hospital in Madison did not come. Eventually, she spent 75 days on life and lung support. She finally met Lucy on January 27 – the day Kelsey was discharged from Madison University Hospital.
‘We bonded immediately when we met. “She gave me a big smile and looked at me as if she knew exactly who I was and it made me feel just as happy,” said the woman in Poynette, Wisconsin.
Dr. Jennifer Krupp, a specialist in fetal medicine and medical director for women and newborn health for SSM Health Wisconsin region, said the hospital barely delivers a baby to a mother who is so ill with COVID-19.
Kelsey Townsend’s oxygen saturation was very low when she arrived at the hospital – so low that a fetus’ brain and other organs could be damaged – and her skin was tinted gray and blue, said Dr. Thomas Littlefield said in an email Wednesday. to be delivered as soon as possible.
Doctors thought Townsend would need a double lung transplant by the end of December. But then she began to improve – so much so that she was moved out of the intensive care unit, removed from a ventilator in mid-January and removed from the transplant waiting list.
Townsend’s husband, Derek Townsend, described the experience as a ‘big roller coaster’.
‘There were many, many nights that I would get calls late at night and early in the morning, and the doctors gave me kind of notice that they had done everything in their power to support Kelsey and that they were having a hard time stabilizing. , “he said.” So there were many times we thought we were going to lose her. “
Derek Townsend says even his baby daughter looked like someone was missing when his wife was still in the hospital.
‘The last three months with Lucy, you know, her head is always moving and she’s always looking. “And I told Kelsey that I believe she’s just looking for her all the time,” he said.
The pair contracted COVID-19 despite precautions, Derek Townsend said. As he got better, his wife got worse. That’s when they went to the hospital.
“Family is everything to me,” Kelsey Townsend said. ‘So I have everything to live for here and come home. There was no doubt that I would not want to. ”