Doctor tells harrowing tale of unvaccinated, pregnant patient ending up in ICU
6 August 2021, 12:55 | Updated: 6 August 2021, 13:58
James O'Brien hears from a doctor about 27-year-old patient with Covid
James O'Brien hears from a doctor about a 27-year-old patient with Covid who was unvaccinated and 29 weeks pregnant.
After several news stories emerged of anti-vaxxers who died with Covid after refusing to take the vaccine, LBC's James O'Brien spoke to one person with a highly personal story to tell.
The caller explained he is an intensive care doctor and told James O'Brien the tale of one patient who was 27-years-old, unvaccinated, but 29-weeks pregnant.
Read more: Anti-vaxxer, 56, dies of Covid as devastated family say jab would have saved him
He said the patient came into A&E at his hospital with "very severe Covid."
Explaining when patients are admitted into intensive care they are asked about their vaccination status, the doctor said the patient told him she had "rejected" the vaccine.
"At that point you could see terror and regret in her eyes as we wheeled her down the corridor to intensive care."
The doctor told James the young woman was put onto high flow oxygen, but "she began to deteriorate."
"At 4am in the morning I knew things were going down hill, so we had to get ready to intubate her and put her on a ventilator."
Intubation is a procedure that doctors use when you can't breathe on your own. The doctor puts a tube down your throat and into your windpipe to make it easier to get air into and out of your lungs. A machine called a ventilator pumps in air with extra oxygen.
The doctor continued his sad tale, telling James by the morning the patient had to be taken for "an emergency Caesarean section."
"That baby, who was 29 weeks, is now on a neonatal intensive care unit," he said explaining normally babies are born at 40 weeks.
"She got so unwell that we had to make a referral for ECMO," which he revealed means blood is pumped outside of your body to a heart-lung machine that removes carbon dioxide and sends oxygen-filled blood back to tissues in the body.
"This ladies risk of death is very high," the caller said.
"Still?" James questioned?
Revealing that the patient. is still in hospital, the doctor said if the patient "does survive she will be in intensive care for many weeks, probably months and her baby is still on neonatal intensive care."
Lost for words, James said he did not realise when the caller started telling his tale that the story would not be finished.
The doctor ended his call with a moving plea for people to get the vaccine.
READ MORE: Anti-vaxxer died from Covid after reading online posts that jabs were too 'experimental'
READ MORE: Sister's heartbreak after brother died of covid as “he didn’t want vaccine in his body”
