Vaccine hesitant mother urges people to get vaccinated against Covid-19 after spending five months in hospital due to Covid-19

Two doses of the Covid-19 vaccines don’t offer the same protection against Omicron compared to the previous variants of the virus, but they still do offer significant protection against severe corona condition, hospitalization or death. According to CDC, booster dose of the vaccines further improves the immunity against the Omicron variant which is known to easily infects people with natural and vaccine immunity.

Since the vaccines were rolled out in December 2020, numerous studies have shown that vaccines don’t negatively affect the mother or the unborn baby, but still, many future mothers choose not to get vaccinated against Covid-19. So was the case with the 28-year-old mother-to-be D. Crouch who remained unvaccinated, but she contracted the virus last August, developed severe condition and was hospitalized for treatment.

According to Newsweek, the young Texas mother feared that getting vaccinated might have negative impact on her, the unborn baby or the pregnancy in general so she decided not to remain unvaccinated against corona at least while pregnant. In August, Crouch visited an emergency room at a local hospital after suffering a persistent headache. The first Covid-19 test she made there came positive. Two days later, she returned to the emergency room and she was told she developed a Covid pneumonia.

“The reason, obviously, for her was because she didn’t think it would be good to get a vaccine while she was pregnant. The doctors said all of this could have been avoided if she was vaccinated. We’ll never know at this point,” her husband Chris told ABC 13.

Crouch was hospitalized, but her condition was not improving. According to the hospital reports, Crouch worsened at around 25 weeks and she went on to suffer three strokes on the same day and a heart attack, as well as numerous seizures. She gave birth via caesarian section at just 31 weeks. Luckily, both the mother and the baby were in stable condition after giving birth.

Taking into consideration her initial condition and age, Crouch was told by the doctors she will only have to be in hospital for 10 days, but even after 17 days, she showed no sings of recovery. Just 18 weeks pregnant at the time, Diana Crouch was transferred to Texas Children’s Hospital, sedated, and placed on an Extra Corporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO) machine, a device that oxygenates a patient’s blood outside their body.

Crouch’s condition finally started to improve after she gave birth late December, but she spent the next few days on ventilator support. Shortly after being taken off her ventilator, she was released from hospital continuing her treatment with oxygen at home and attending physical and occupational therapy. The mother spent a total of 139 days in hospital battling Covid-19.

According to a recent study, pregnant women or those who plan to become pregnant are urged to get vaccinated because pre-term births, stillbirths and new-born deaths are more common among women who have Covid-19 28 days, or less, before their delivery date. The study’s authors said that “addressing low vaccine uptake in pregnant women is imperative to protect the health of women and babies”.

Crouch realized she definitely made a huge mistake deciding not to vax while pregnant. Once she was released from hospital, both Crouch and her husband decided to get vaccinated against Covid-19. She is happy to be with her family and becomes vaccines advocate urging everyone to get vaccinated against the deadly virus including pregnant women.