A pregnant mother suffering from Covid-19 woke up from her month-long coma to discover she had given birth to twins.
Dr Perpetual Uke, a rheumatology consultant at Birmingham City Hospital, said that, when she woke and saw her bump had gone, she believed she had tragically lost the babies.
Dr Uke was around six months pregnant when she began to feel unwell with Covid-19 symptoms in March, ending up on a ventilator at Birmingham’s Queen Elizabeth Hospital.
She was in the induced coma for almost a month, during which time doctors decided it would be safer for her and the twins if they were delivered prematurely by caesarean section.
Palmer, a girl, and Pascal, a boy, were born on 10 April at just 26 weeks old, weighing only 770g and 850g.
She told The Metro: "I remember getting ill and the ambulance coming to take me away, and then I was put in a coma.
Dr Perpetual Uke with her new born son Pascal outside their family home
Sky News"Coming out of the coma was the worst aspect. I had nightmares.
“I was delusional, I couldn’t see my bump and I thought my babies were gone and all my family had died.”
The twins were cared for in the neonatal intensive care unit until they were 116 days old.
"They were so tiny they didn't look like my older kids, I couldn't touch them, I felt so emotional," she told Sky News.
“Sometimes I look at them in tears, I never knew they would make it. It is amazing what medical professional science can offer.”
The family were clapped out of the unit by an emotional team when they were finally able to leave the hospital.
REUTERSYvonne Heward, head of neonatal nursing at Birmingham Women’s and Children’s NHS Trust, said: “It was a very emotional time when Perpetual was treated in intensive care.
“Their journey has been miraculous and the day of their discharge home was very emotional indeed.
“It was such a pleasure for us to care for this wonderful family and we have the upmost admiration for them.”
The family were clapped out of the unit by an emotional team when they were finally able to leave the hospital.
Dr Uke said she would be “forever grateful” to the NHS staff who saved their lives, and that she now planned rest and enjoy her maternity leave with the twins.
