Almost three months after Kelsey Townsend gave birth to her fourth child, the 32-year-old woman from Wisconsin finally came face to face with her.
Lucy, now with bright, alert eyes, smiled at her.
“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 cesarean section on November 4, not long after arriving at SSM Health St. Mary’s Hospital in Madison. She ended up spending 75 days with life and lung support. She finally met Lucy on January 27 – the day Kelsey was discharged from University Hospital in Madison.
“We came together instantly 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 very happy, ”said the woman from Poynette, Wisconsin.
Dr. Jennifer Krupp, a specialist in Maternal-Fetal Medicine and Medical Director of Women’s and Newborn Health at SSM Health Wisconsin Region, said that it is rare for the hospital to deliver a baby to a mother so sick with COVID-19.
Kelsey Townsend’s oxygen saturation was very low when she arrived at the hospital – so low that the fetus’ brain and other organs could be damaged – and her skin was tinged with gray and blue, Dr. Thomas Littlefield said via email at Wednesday, so your baby had to be delivered as soon as possible.
Doctors thought that Townsend might need a double lung transplant in late December. But then she started to improve – so much so that she was removed from the intensive care unit, disconnected from the respirator 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 when I got calls late at night and early in the morning, and the doctors kind of informed me that they did everything they could to support Kelsey and are having a hard time stabilizing,” he said. “So , we often thought we were going to lose it. ”
Derek Townsend says that even his daughter seemed to notice that someone was missing when his wife was still hospitalized.
“For the past three months with Lucy, you know, her head is always moving and she is always looking. And I told Kelsey that I believe she is constantly looking for her, ”he said.
The pair contracted COVID-19 despite taking precautions, said Derek Townsend. As he got better, his wife got worse. That was when they went to the hospital.
“Family is everything to me,” said Kelsey Townsend. “So I have everything to live here and coming home to. There was no doubt that I wouldn’t. “