Marisa Christie was declared clinically dead for almost an hour after she suffered from a rare but often fatal birth complication – but her story has a happy ending
Marisa and Dylan Christie had just one child – a four year-old son – before they then had triplets (Image: gofundme.com)
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A woman experienced the shock of her life when she woke up with no memory of giving birth to triplets after being clinically dead for nearly an hour. Marisa Christie, a 30 year old mum from Texas, USA, had gone to the hospital for a planned cesarean which initially went smoothly until she suddenly turned grey.
Marisa had an amniotic fluid embolism (AFE), a rare and often fatal complication, but quick-thinking doctors managed to save her. “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,” Marisa told Today.
When she regained consciousness, her husband Dylan broke the news of their healthy triplets, joining their four-year-old son as part of their family. Marisa was overwhelmed: “I was absolutely terrified…How could I not remember having my babies?” The couple had been trying for another child for two years and started using an ovulation trigger shot.
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At her first ultrasound, the possibility of twins or even triplets was suggested. “They were like, ‘We’re pretty sure it’s twins. There might be a third one hiding,'” Marisa said, recalling how she “cried most of that month” while grappling with the prospect of expanding their family to four children.
Marisa, while pregnant, felt “very sick” and during this time she learned that one of her unborn triplets was sharing a sac with a twin that never fully developed—a situation which demanded an in-womb procedure. Marisa recounted: “Our baby C was sharing a sack with a twin but that twin never got a heartbeat,” explaining the doctors had to remove the remains because it “was putting too much stress on baby C’s heart.”, reports the Mirror.
She admitted: “That was a little scary.”
At 33 weeks along, they reached Memorial Hermann the Woodlands Medical Center just north of Houston for a scheduled C-section where her maternal-fetal medicine specialist, Dr Amber Samuel, delivered all three babies safely. However, anesthesiologist Dr Ricardo Mora recognized that Marisa was seizing post-delivery.
Describing her state, he said: “She (was) essentially grey,” indicating he instantly knew that he “knew something terrible just occurred,”.
Dr Mora, who is affiliated with Memorial Hermann the Woodlands Medical Center, used his experience from 15 years prior with another mother who suffered from AFE – an extreme allergic reaction to amniotic fluid after giving birth – to quickly respond to the emergency. He labelled the episode “pretty catastrophic” and revealed that such cases are “80%, 85% fatal.”
A code blue was immediately called by Dr Mora, prompting the medical team to begin life-saving measures as Marisa stopped breathing and had no pulse. Dr Mora said: “She wasn’t breathing. We started CPR because she had no pulse.”
Marisa extraordinarily survived after haemorrhaging severely, with doctors working frantically to save her life. Dr Samuel managed to halt the bleeding by surgically closing her uterus.
“She essentially lost what we consider her whole blood volume. We replaced her blood volume. So, for 45 minutes, she was clinically dead,” declared Dr Mora. Marisa then suffered further uncontrollable bleeding, leading to the removal of her uterus.
“We tried to resuscitate her and prevent her from having a hysterectomy,” explained Dr Samuel, adding the grim reality that making an incision was extremely risky at that point. .
Dr Mora pointed out that Amniotic Fluid Embolism (AFE) cases are exceptionally unusual, comparing it to the rarity of being hit by lightning. After spending a week in a medically-induced coma, Marisa began to exhibit positive recovery signs, sparking hope as she was gradually taken off the ventilator and ECMO machine.
Despite her initial confusion and dream-like recollections upon awakening, her improvement was indeed a medical marvel. Dr Mora shared his personal stake in her recovery: “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.”
After realising she had given birth to triplets, the pain of her open wound, which had been left to heal without further surgery, started to take hold. “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 recalled.
When Christine first met her 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. However, the babies recognised their mum due to the baby blankets that had been placed on Marisa while she was in intensive care, allowing them to become familiar with her scent.
She had also done skin-to-skin contact with them while unconscious. Marisa noted: “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 return home, she “basically lived in a recliner in our living room” as she recovered from her ordeal.
“My core is completely obliterated. So, it was really really hard for me to move,” she added. To help Marisa adjust to life with a toddler and multiple babies, the triplets’ return home was staggered.
“That was a blessing in disguise,” she said. Nine weeks following the birth of her babies, her wound finally healed.
She shared: “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 resilient mum is keen on raising awareness about AFE to assist 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.”
