SARASOTA, Fla. (WFLA) – A Sarasota Memorial Hospital labor and delivery nurse, who is now a mother of four, recently decided to share the battle she went through with coronavirus while pregnant.
Brittany Campana is a healthy 29-year-old. She was eating fruits and vegetables, taking all her needed vitamins and still working out at least three times a week while pregnant. She thought her good health and age, even though she was pregnant, would keep her from getting seriously sick with COVID-19, so she put off getting vaccinated.
Campana said that decision put her baby’s life in danger when she caught the virus. She said she became very sick.
“I never thought in a million years that I would be in the hospital bed asking the doctors if I was going to die, if I was going to be intubated,” she said. “When I was so severely sick of COVID, I was so afraid that I was I was going to die, that I was going to leave my three kids at home and possibly this baby, if they had to deliver him and take him to NICU. My husband was so afraid.”
Campana’s oxygen levels were deemed fine but her placenta was damaged, possibly from a blot clot caused by COVID-19. Her doctors found that it was worse than they thought. Her son Hudson had to be born before 40 weeks and spent time in the neonatal unit.
Now, both mother and baby are doing well.
According to Sarasota Memorial, more than 50 pregnant women were treated for COVID-19 in August.
Dr. Felice Baron, director of Maternal-Fetal Medicine at SMH, wants pregnant women to know they should also be getting vaccinated to protect themselves and their babies.
“Two vaccines that are safe going pregnancy so you no longer have the angst of, ‘should I or if I do this am potentially going to be harming my baby.’ Today the information is there to say, ‘get vaccinated,'” Dr. Baron said.
“Working on labor and delivery, I’m seeing how sick pregnant mommies are, so knowing what they’re going through my heart just breaks for them,” Campana said.
She said now that the Pfzier vaccine is approved by the Food and Drug Administration, she is hopeful that other mothers will get vaccinated, as she plans to.
“I feel so thankful that I’m alive and able to be a mom to my kids and I want to do everything I can to continue being a mom and being healthy,” Campana said.
