Newborn baby boy named after the doctor who treated mother for Covid-19

A mother was admitted to the hospital for Covid-19, where she suffered a stroke before delivering her son at 31 weeks

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A Texas couple has honoured the doctor who helped their family in the best way possible: by naming their newborn son after him.

Diana Crouch, 28, learned she was positive for Covid-19 in July 2021, when she was 18 weeks pregnant.

As her symptoms grew worse, she was admitted to Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston. There, she was treated by Dr. Cameron Dezfulian, the medical director of the Adult Congenital Heart Disease, who Crouch credits with saving both her life and her baby’s life.

“She was in a unique situation where she was 18 weeks pregnant at that time, so she wasn’t at a point where the baby could be delivered nor did it seem like that would necessarily help,” Dr Dezfulian told Good Morning America.

For the next two weeks, Ms Crouch was sedated and placed on a ventilator. Her husband Chris, 37, made the difficult decision to place his wife on ECMO, or an extracorporeal membrane oxygenation. During those eight weeks on ECMO, Ms Crouch experienced blood clotting, heart attacks, multiple seizures, and a stroke.

“After her stroke, she was kind of laying there,” her husband told GMA. “She didn’t move or anything for like three days. And I told Dr. Cameron if she starts to wake up, I know we’re gonna walk out of this hospital. And she woke up the next day.”

Ms Crouch gradually improved by the time her pregnancy reached 31 weeks, and doctors decided to perform a C-section. Cameron Andrew Crouch was born eight weeks early on 10 November, 2021, and the mother was finally discharged on 23 December.

“You can’t do this kind of complex care without a real team and we had an incredible team that was there,” Dr Cameron Dezfulian said.

Studies show that pregnant women with Covid have a greater risk of experiencing pregnancy complications.

In 2021, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention found that pregnant women who contract Covid-19 are twice as likely to have a stillbirth.

Pregnant Covid patients were also in greater danger of developing severe and sometimes fatal illness, as well as experiencing complications like premature births. The results of the study reinforce concerns about the dangers of Covid for women. However, experts have concluded that Covid vaccines are safe for pregnant women.