COVID-19 survivor nurse holds her baby girl for the first time
Nurse contracted coronavirus while pregnant and her condition deteriorated after giving birth
An emergency nurse with no memory of giving birth while seriously ill with COVID-19 had to wait almost three months to hold her baby for the first time.
Now, Eva Gicain has been reunited with daughter Elleana and was able to celebrate a late Christmas at home, along with healthcare assistant husband Limuel, himself a COVID-19 survivor.
Critical care and long separation for mother and baby
Ms Gicain had to be admitted to Basildon University Hospital at 34 weeks pregnant after contracting coronavirus while off work. She gave birth by emergency c-section but had to be transferred to Royal Papworth Hospital in Cambridge when her condition deteriorated.
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She was placed on an ECMO (extracorporeal membrane oxygenation) machine, which oxygenates the blood, giving her lungs time to recover from the ravages of the virus.
‘When I held Elleana for the first time I didn’t want to let go… we are now looking forward to being a little family’
Eva Gicain
She remained in hospital for 76 days and said being away from her husband and child made her determined to recover.
‘When I held Elleana for the first time I didn’t want to let go,’ she said.
Elleana had to be cared for by nurses at Basildon’s neonatal intensive care unit while her father recovered from COVID-19 at home.
He said: ‘It was so horrible, the three of us being in separate places when we should all have been together.’
His wife added: ‘Life is unpredictable and we are now just looking forward to being a little family and spending time together.’
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