What should have been the happy start to a new chapter in the Johnsons’ lives soon turned to devastation.
It was 2016, and Kira Johnson was pregnant with the couple’s second child. Kira and Charles already had one young son and were eager to welcome another little boy into the world.
“We always wanted back-to-back boys,” Charles recalled during an interview with KHOU-TV. “When we found out that we were welcoming another boy, we were just ecstatic.”
Over the entire arch of her pregnancy, Kira was the epitome of healthy. She never missed a prenatal appointed and energetically awaited the healthy reports she received at every doctor’s visit. Then delivery day came, and she was ready.
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Their baby boy was born. All was well. But it didn’t stay that way.
Resting in the recovery room, Charles noticed something was amiss. His wife was struggling. She needed help, and she needed it immediately.
Kira’s catheter was filling up with blood. When Charles told nurses and doctors about what has happening, they ordered at CT scan.
“That was supposed to be performed STAT,” Charles said. “In my mind, I’m thinking, ‘That means immediately.’”
But that’s not what happened. Kira waited for hours.
“She’s beginning to tremble uncontrollably,” Charles remembered. “She’s beginning to shake. She’s beginning to be in increasingly more pain. She’s becoming sensitive to the touch.”
“There’s still no CT scan.”
After seven hours, still no CT scan had been performed. The doctor came in to examine Kira and assured Charles everything would be OK. “She’ll be back in 15 minutes,” Charles said, recalling the doctor’s words.
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That was the last time Charles saw his wife alive.
“We walked in for what we expected to be the happiest day of our life. And we walked straight into a nightmare,” he said. “I sit awake at nights thinking maybe I should have grabbed somebody by the collar, maybe I should’ve turned a table over, would that have made a difference? Even two years later, I still can’t make sense of it in my mind.”
Charles’ mother, Glenda Hatchett, operates a law firm based in Atlanta. She’s also the star of the nationally syndicated court TV program “Judge Hatchett.” Hatchett had a very close relationship with Kira.
“She was so excited that Langston was coming,” Hatchett said. “She should be here.”