Sheenah Berry of Rex, Georgia spent 136 days in the hospital for contracting the COVID-19 virus while she was pregnant and has now finally come home after successfully giving birth to her daughter, Kensley, via C-section.
Faithwire reported that the 37-year-old Berry was in critical condition during the four and half months she stayed in the hospital since August. Berry believed she got the virus from her 8-year-old son K.J. when she was four months pregnant. At that time, she experienced difficulty breathing and was brought to the Piedmonth Henry Hospital for admission.
"That was September 2, actually, and I went to Piedmont Henry, and I didn't come home until Saturday," Berry told Fox Atlanta.
Berry was put on ventilator hours after she arrived at the hospital. Beforehand, Berry's sister, Wandalyn McKinney, said she was able to make a phone call to their mother informing her that she will be placed on a ventilator. The call was made through FaceTime and that was the last time they spoke "for almost a month" for she had to be transferred to another hospital, Piedmont Atlanta, to ensure she and her baby would survive.
The Piedmont Atlanta Hospital had an extracorporeal membrane oxygenation or ECMO machine that is much like a heart-lung bypass machine used during open-heart surgeries. The ECMO machine, according to Faithwire, "pumps and oxygenates a patient's blood outside the body, allowing the heart and lungs to rest."
Since the start of the pandemic, the Piedmont Atlanta has used the ECMO machines on 114 COVID-19 patients that included 15 pregnant women in critical condition. The ECMO machine has a strong survival rate for critically ill COVID-19 patients, especially pregnant ones as 14 of the 15 in Piedmont survived.
Piedmont Atlanta ECMO Program Head Dr. Peter Barrett explained that the machine supports not only the mother but also her unborn child develop healthily and effectively. The only challenge they had was that Berry's pregnancy was the first they encountered in early pregnancy.
"If you keep certain parameters, the baby can continue to grow and develop in a healthy manner. We supported two individuals, the mom and the baby, and it is a technology that is effective," Barrett explained.
As such, Berry had to be induced in a coma for two months that led her vital signs to constantly change. This also made the entire ordeal difficult to remember for Berry who found it all "surreal" after looking at the healthy baby she is carrying after her delivery.
McKinney said that throughout that time no one in the family could visit Berry due to the pandemic but they would pray for her. The hospital's medical staff would give them updates thrice or more in a day.
McKinney said their mother "knew they were going to be OK" and she was correct about it. McKinney describes the ordeal her sister went through as "life-altering" for her and the entire family. Looking at her sister and her new niece, McKinney couldn't help but call it "a miracle."
"It was like witnessing a miracle with your own eyes. That my sister was able to fight and survive through this, and then now she's bringing her daughter, a child, into the world. It was just absolutely magical," McKinney said.
Berry, though at home, is still on oxygen as she and Kensley recover fully. She revealed crediting God for her newborn child and expressed gratitude to Him for what he has done. She went on to invite people to get vaccinated for it is helpful especially for pregnant women. Barrett said that had she been vaccinated, she would have skipped undergoing her ordeal.
"It was, like, 'OK, we did it. We made it. Thank you, God. And, I just want all the pregnant moms to know they need to get vaccinated, because that can help," Berry shared.
