A New Hampshire woman gave birth Saturday after reportedly being incubated and put into a coma for three weeks by doctors at Dartmouth Hitchcock medical center in Lebanon, New Hampshire.
20-year-old Rocio Casalduc reportedly developed a dry cough during her second trimester in late June and was tested positive for COVID-19, KRON4 reported.
“I was COVID-positive, and that’s when I just. I don’t know. I just dropped,” she told local news. “I couldn’t even think I was so nervous.”
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Casalduc said she asked the doctors at Dartmouth Hitchcock medical center to save her baby daughter Victoria’s life and had to answer difficult questions about whether or not the baby’s life could be saved, according to KRON4.
“If I had to choose between me and my daughter’s life, who would I choose? And, that’s when — I don’t even know. I just started to cry,” Casalduc said. (RELATED: Crisis Response Plan Calls For Expanded Benefits For Pregnant Mothers To Ward Off Abortions)
The expecting mother woke up over the weekend and discovered that she had given birth to Victoria while she was in a coma, WCAX3 reported. “I’m like, wow, this is amazing. I’m thankful that I’m alive,” Casalduc said.
Doctors said Casalduc’s family — including her mother, sister, boyfriend and son — all tested positive for COVID-19 but were recovering, KRON4 reported. Victoria was born around three months early and is expected to remain in the hospital until she is fully on the path to recovery, per the outlet.
“I just told them I’m like, I’m not going to let her leave so soon. We’re going to fight. She’s a fighter just like me,” Casalduc said of her newborn daughter. “Up to this day today, she’s still fighting. she’s still a little sick, but she’s like me: she’s a fighter.”
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that pregnant women with COVID-19 are more likely to be hospitalized but have the same mortality rate as non-pregnant women.