San Antonio mom, Gina Walker, 31, is being called a miracle after surviving the birth of her daughter, Addison -- a massive hemorrhage during labor required a blood transfusion of about 35 gallons, the AP reports.
According to KSAT, Walker was diagnosed with a very rare condition called Placenta Percreta, early on in her pregnancy. She thought she was miscarrying after "horrific" hemorrhages and a blood clot. But, as Dr. Jason Parker, with UT Medicine San Antonio said at a news conference on Wednesday, she had a condition "where the placenta can invade through the uterine wall and go into the bladder."
Walker was admitted for a planned cesarean section on February 15. Her delivery went well, the San Antonio Express-News reports, but then doctors began a planned hysterectomy and “encountered catastrophic hemorrhage,” Dr. Parker said.
As the bleeding got worse, hospital staff needed to bring in trauma surgeons. Dr. Kevin Hall, chief of gynecological oncology at the UT medical school said that they were able to control it for a brief period of time, but Walker soon "started to bleed massively again".
Doctors went through 30 units of blood and then had to scramble for even more. "I watched cooler after cooler after cooler with my wife's name on it, full of blood, going up and down the hallways, I started getting worried," Dustin Walker, Gina's husband, recalled at the press conference.
The final count was 117 liters of blood, about 35 gallons, KSAT reports. Hospital blood bank chief, Sherrie Warner, said that was the most blood they've ever had to transfuse to a patient. It was miraculous that Walker survived, but more so that she survived without major complications, Parker said.
Walker remained in the hospital for almost a month. She's reported blurry vision in one eye, but doctors said she could have suffered brain injury, stroke, paralysis or death.
Mom, dad and baby returned to the hospital in San Antonio Wednesday to thank the team that saved her life.
"I've always been very religious in my beliefs but now my faith is even more because I know that a true miracle has happened," she said.
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