Wisconsin woman meets her baby after giving birth while in COVID-19 coma

A Wisconsin woman met her infant daughter last week after giving birth in November while in a medically induced coma after being diagnosed with COVID-19.

Kelsey Townsend last Thursday was discharged from University Hospital in Madison, Wis., after being diagnosed with the coronavirus in October. She gave birth at the hospital on Nov. 4 while in a medically induced coma, according to a Monday statement from University of Wisconsin Health.

Townsend spent 75 days on an extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) machine and ventilator, two life support systems. Doctors initially determined in December that she would need a double lung transplant in order to survive.

However, days after being added to a lung transplant waiting list, Townsend’s condition began to “improve significantly.” She was taken off of a ventilator in January and moved out of the hospital’s intensive care unit, according to the Monday statement.

“Particularly early on, it was unclear whether we were going to be able to support her through it, and then ultimately there was still a lot of uncertainty around what was the best way to get her safely out of the hospital and home,” Daniel McCarthy, a physician and director of the hospital’s ECMO program, said in a video released Monday by the health system. 

The woman was applauded and congratulated by medical professionals as she left the hospital in a wheelchair in the Monday video.

Townsend was reunited with her husband, Derek, and her four children at home on Thursday, including her daughter, Lucy, whom she had not previously met. Townsend’s son welcomed her home with her “favorite ice cream” in the Monday video.