In a decision that ultimately saved her son, Karisa Bugal offered the greatest sacrifice a mother could ever give to her child--her life.
While giving birth to her second child, Karisa had been diagnosed with an extremely uncommon and fatal condition called amniotic fluid embolism. Hence, the baby and the mother are both in fatal danger as the protective fluid enveloping the child during the pregnancy has escaped. Contact with the fluid could potentially kill the baby or the mother, or even both of them.
"The amniotic fluids surrounding the baby or part of the baby's skin or hair gets into the mother's bloodstream and that causes catastrophic shutdown of all the organs," explained Dr. Kelly Gerow. "We don't know how to prevent it. We don't know how to keep it from happening at all," added the doctor from the Medical Center of Aurora.
To ensure the safety of her baby boy whose heart rate was beginning to drop due to the contact with the amniotic fluids, Karisa decided to undergo the quickest option to remove the child right away. This decision, however, meant that her life would be put on the line. Despite the very high risk, Karisa firmly went through with the caesarian operation.
"Her other option would have been to stay awake for her surgery, but by the time we would have put in a spinal tap or something it's possible Declan would not have made it," Dr. Gerow said.
Wes Bugal, the husband of Karisa, shared that the last time he saw his wife alive had been when the hospital staff began rushing to take her to the emergency room for the C-section procedure. Although he has not received any news at that point, Wes knew that the prognosis for his wife's survival was grim but held on to hope as he "wanted to keep the faith."
"That was about the last time I saw her," shared the grieving husband. "That's the hard part: how to explain to him that his mom's gone giving birth to him. Explain to both of them where their mom's at when they ask, 'Where's Mommy?'"
With the sacrifice she made, Declan Bugal was safely born weighing 7 pounds and 4 ounces--the information last asked by the courageous mom before finally passing away.
"She came to the hospital to be a mom, and she did what she was supposed to do," said Karisa's sister Maren Oates. She also described the newborn child Declan as her sister's "miracle".
