And after giving birth, the young mother fell into a coma. She might not have seen her newborn baby.
“I had a perfect pregnancy. Even in the morning I didn’t feel sick, I went to work calmly until 38 weeks, ”says 27-year-old Becky Rule. And then she suddenly had a severe migraine. There was nothing to escape the headache: not all medicines are suitable for pregnant women. The day before the expected date of birth, Becky’s condition worsened: speech began to get confused. Becky’s alarmed fiancé drove the girl to the hospital.
After examining her, the doctors immediately sent Becky to the cesarean: both her heart and the heart of the baby were beating at an alarming pace. Baby Jackson was born a completely healthy little boy weighing 3600 grams, but Becky still had to fight for her own life. After the operation, she began to have convulsions, and according to the test results, the young mother was diagnosed with meningoencephalitis – an inflammation of the brain and meninges. Both bacteria and viruses can cause this disease. Becky had to be put into a drug-induced coma.
“The doctors rated my chances of survival as one in five. Moreover, they said that if I came to myself, I would not be able to walk or say that I would lose my memory. No one knew where the infection was nesting in my brain. I still have no idea how I picked her up, ”says Becky.
The girl spent two weeks in a coma. Three more are in rehabilitation. All this time, her fiancé took care of the baby. He visited Becky every day, brought her baby Jackson, taught the girl how to bottle feed her own son, and mixed the formula for feeding himself. Just think, my mother saw her baby a few weeks after his birth.
“I am very lucky that the doctors managed to do the Caesarean on time. Jackson was not affected by the infection that destroyed my memory. ” Despite everything, Becky is happy.
Becky’s discharge from the hospital was turned into a holiday, but she absolutely does not remember it. She had to learn a lot again: move, walk, talk. At first, she could only pronounce indistinct sounds. She managed to hold the bottle of milk with monstrous efforts. And in order to even remember that I needed to feed the child, I had to put a reminder on my phone. The girl stopped feeling hunger or satiety, even salivation could not be controlled. But, in spite of everything, little Jackson was the light in her life – Becky tried to return to normal life in order to be at home with her family.
“We are still very lucky. It could have been much worse – sometimes a brain infection leads to terrible consequences, – says Becky. – And everything worked out for me. Jackson is already a year old and we are both perfectly healthy. “