A mum recalled the terrifying moment she found out she’d given birth to triplets – and had no memory of it.

Marisa Christie, 30, from Texas in the USA was pronounced clinically dead for almost an hour after she suffered from a rare but often fatal birth complication. The mum-of-four had arrived at hospital ready for a planned cesarean and everything was going to plan until she suddenly turned grey.

Marisa had suffered an amniotic fluid embolism (AFE), which more often than not kills the mum, but thankfully the doctors knew straight away “The doctors had pulled all three (babies) out. Actually, they were resting them on my stomach to do a delayed cord clamping. My arms flew up, and that was when my heart stopped,” she told Today.

After she eventually woke up, her husband Dylan told her that they now had a set of healthy triplets, along with their four-year-old son. A stunned Marisa explained: “I was absolutely terrified. … How could I not remember having my babies?”

The couple had been trying for another baby for around two years when she began an ovulation trigger shot, which encourages egg maturation to help pregnancy. Following her first ultrasound she was amazed to find out that she might be having twins, possibly even triplets.

“They were like, ‘We’re pretty sure it’s twins. There might be a third one hiding,’” she said. Marisa “cried most of that month” as they considered what life would be like with four children and feared that they wouldn’t be able to cope with it.

The pregnancy was physically tough on Marisa, at times feeling “very sick”, and soon the pair found out that one of their three babies had its own separate twin that never developed – and required a procedure while in the womb.

Marisa said: “Our baby C was sharing a sack with a twin but that twin never got a heartbeat,” and the doctors needed to remove the remains because the lessened blood flow “was putting too much stress on baby C’s heart.” She added: “That was a little scary.”

At 33 weeks pregnant, the couple arrived at Memorial Hermann the Woodlands Medical Center North of Houston for a planned C-section. Her maternal-fetal medicine physician, Dr Amber Samuel, delivered the three babies successfully.

However, Dr Ricardo Mora, the anesthesiologist, noticed that she was seizing. “She (was) essentially grey,” Mora, an anesthesiologist affiliated with Memorial Hermann the Woodlands Medical Center, told the publication. “I knew something terrible just occurred,” he recalled.

A previous experience 15 years ago with another mum who had an AFE – essentially a severe allergic reaction to amniotic fluid after delivery – helped him realise what was happening and so he was able to jump into action. Dr Mora described the situation as “pretty catastrophic” and said cases of this are around “80%, 85% fatal.”

He called a code blue for immediate help and medics began flooding into the room to try and save Marisa. Dr Mora said: “She wasn’t breathing. We started CPR because she had no pulse.”

Marisa was haemorrhaging and the doctors replaced her blood as Dr Samuel attempted to stop the bleeding by closing the uterus. Around an hour after Marisa’s heart stopped she was placed on an ECMO, a machine that works for the heart and lungs to help the body recover.

“She essentially lost what we consider her whole blood volume. We replaced her blood volume. So, for 45 minutes, she was clinically dead,” said Dr Mora.

While in intensive care Marisa experienced uncontrolled haemorrhaging from her uterus and it was decided to remove it. “We tried to resuscitate her and prevent her from having a hysterectomy,” Dr Samuel said, before adding, “Cutting into (her) was very very dangerous.”

The doctor noted that AFE are “very rare occurrences” and likened the chances of it to being struck by lightning. Marisa remained unconscious for a week under sedation while Dr Mora visited her regularly, hoping to see any signs of improvement.

He said: “You can do the best CPR in the world, but if you don’t get enough blood to the brain, essentially they are alive but with brain damage. I needed her to live to raise her kids. So, it was a personal thing for me.”

Thankfully, Marisa started to show signs that she was coming back around and was slowly weaned off the breathing machine and ECMO. However, she felt confused and as if she had had a very vivid dream throughout the pregnancy after first waking.

After realising she’d given birth to triplets the pain of the open wound – left that way so doctors wouldn’t have to perform subsequent surgeries – began to kick in. “The pain that I felt, I’m like there’s no way this is not real. That’s the first very coherent thought I remember having,” she said.

When Christine first met the babies Charlotte, Kendall and Collins, it felt “very surreal.” “I remember thinking, ‘I don’t know these babies. This is very strange. They feel like they’re not real.

“They feel like they’re not mine. They were already over a week old by the time I had met them. … It took a little bit to get that connection with them,” she said.

The babies knew who she was though as staff had placed baby blankets on Marisa while she was in intensive care so they recognised their mum’s smell. She also did skin-to-skin with them while she was unconscious.

Marisa said: “They could tell that I was their mum. They respond to me when I talk to them as opposed to other people.” Once she was able to go home she “basically lived in a recliner in our living room” while she recovered from her ordeal.

“My core is completely obliterated. So, it was really really hard for me to move,” she added. The triplet’s return to home was staggered to help Marisa adjust to life with a toddler and multiple babies.

“That was a blessing in disguise,” she said. Nine weeks after delivering the infants, her wound healed. She said: “I feel very disconnected from whoever (I) was before, I’ve gotten stronger, but I’ve also changed so much because going through a traumatic experience like that changes the way you view things.”

Now, the proud mum wants to raise awareness of AFE to help other mums. She said: “It’s rare, but it does happen. There were so many miracles that led up to me living instead of dying and we’re grateful.”

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