New mother intubated moments after giving birth dies of Covid

The woman did not get to hold her newborn as she was intubated so soon after the delivery

File Image: Health workers wearing full personal protective equipment (PPE) tend to a patient on the intensive care unit (ICU) at Whiston Hospital in Merseyside (PA)

A 33-year-old woman has died of coronavirus in Michigan almost three weeks after she delivered a baby boy, and never got a chance to hold the child. 

Erica Becerra was eight months pregnant when she first tested positive for Covid-19.  Her health started to decline almost immediately after the diagnosis. Her husband called the ambulance when she started facing difficulty in breathing. 

Three days later, on 15 November, she gave birth to a healthy baby boy through induced labour. She died less than a month later, on 3 December.

“She had a normal labour, she gave birth to her son but didn’t get to hold him because right after she gave birth, that’s when they put in the tube and then from there she just started declining,” her brother, Michael Avilez told CBS LA. 

Mr Avilez and the rest of the family members travelled to Michigan from Los Angeles to be with Becerra in her final moments.  

“It was a complete shock — she was fine,” her godmother, Claudia Garcia told The New York Times. “I’m speechless. I’m still trying to wake up from this nightmare.”

Becerra, who was originally from Los Angeles but had recently moved to Detroit, Michigan, with her husband and one-year-old daughter, was intubated right after delivering a healthy baby boy, Diego Antonio Becerra, and remained on a ventilator for 18 days.  

She reportedly had no underlying conditions besides her pregnancy. Her husband and two children have all tested negative for the virus.

In November, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) had added pregnancy to the list of conditions that put those with Covid-19 at a heightened risk of developing severe illness, putting them at an increased risk of death.  

The new caution was put in place by US health officials after a CDC study found that they were more likely to require intensive care and mechanical ventilation than non-pregnant women of the same age with coronavirus symptoms. In fact, the risk of death increased by 70 per cent for pregnant women, as compared to symptomatic non-pregnant women, found the study.