One woman from Washington state is crediting God and her faith after she gave birth in a coma while fighting an infection with the novel coronavirus.
When the 27-year-old Vancouver resident awoke on April 6, her once-pregnant belly was flat and the symptoms of the illness that brought her to the hospital had dissipated. Soon thereafter, she found out she had given birth while she was unconscious.
During an interview with NBC’s “Today,” Angela Primachenko said she started feeling ill on March 24, when she developed a fever — a dangerous symptom for a woman 33 weeks pregnant. So she went to the hospital, where she works as a respiratory therapist, to be tested for coronavirus.
The results came back. It was positive.
Her symptoms instantly began to worsen, and by March 29, Primachenko was placed in a medically induced coma.
The young mother was still unconscious April 1, when doctors induced labor and delivered her baby girl, Ava, whose name means “breath of life.”
Primachenko’s twin sister, Oksana Luiten, wrote about the harrowing experience on Instagram, admitting the “dark time” challenged her faith and trust in God.
“I felt so powerless and so fearful and out of control,” she wrote. “But that’s how faith grows, going through times of uncertainty and seeing God gently calm my spirt again and again… and now seeing the end… I stand in awe of God. He is good.”
As for Primachenko, she has since come off the ventilator and is breathing well on her own. When she was discharged from the ICU, her colleagues gathered around to applaud her stunning fight.
“Everyone did a standing ovation and just clapped me out of the ICU, which was so amazing and such a huge thing to be able to leave the ICU and go to the floors,” she recalled. “It was just the grace of God.”
Thankfully, though Primachenko hasn’t interacted physically with her newborn daughter, she has been able to see her over video calls when her husband, David, checks in on Ava.
“She’s our new little breath of life,” Primachenko said.
Ava is joining her big sister Emily, who is only about 10 months older, since she was born prematurely.
Primachenko won’t be able to reunite with her husband and daughters until she has tested negative for the coronavirus at least twice.
“Even in the hardest days and the hardest times, there’s hope,” she said. “And you can rely on God and people and community. The amount of community people that were praying for me is just unbelievable. I was blown away and I’m so incredibly thankful. And I feel like I’m a miracle walking.”