ST. LOUIS COUNTY, Mo. — A Des Peres mother is thankful she and her baby girl are alive after a terrifying battle with the coronavirus. She says she never expected someone like herself, a healthy 36-year-old, would get so sick from the virus.
Mallory Goepel is a nurse practitioner, a wife and a mother of three. She was 33 weeks pregnant with her third child when she was diagnosed with COVID-19. She got the positive test results on a Monday. She quarantined in her bedroom for six days, but her shortness of breath worsened. On Saturday, her husband drove her to the emergency room.
A few days later, her oxygen levels dropped and she was rushed to an operating room for an emergency C-section.
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"It was a terrifying decision knowing that I would go under that I would be on a ventilator. You know original outcomes of being on a ventilator during this pandemic were not great. So I certainly had a fear that I may not wake up and see my family ever again, but I did," explained Mallory through tears.
Goepel posted on Facebook that she was put under general anesthesia when they delivered her baby girl. She woke up three days later.
She wrote, “What all my doctors are saying is truly a miracle. I was taken off of the ventilator after the third day and made one heck of a turn around. I had been on continuous infusions of medicines to keep my blood pressure up, paralyze me, and keep me sedated and comfortable. I had a line in my jugular and a radial [arterial] line. I was placed in prone position (on my belly) directly out of the OR with a fresh c-section. I woke up on Sunday and began the painful journey of my further recovery.”
Goepel is sharing her story so others will know it can happen to anyone and to take this virus seriously. She's now counting her blessings being home as a family of five recovering with their new baby girl Demi.
You can read her message and wish her well on the Facebook post here.
