via: People
When Perpetual Uke was placed on a ventilator and into an induced coma due to COVID-19, she was pregnant with twins.
When she awoke, she wasn’t — and was shocked to discover she’d given birth to her newborns while in the hospital.
“By the time I woke up, I was so disoriented,” Uke told Sky News. “I thought I’d lost my pregnancy because I couldn’t see my bump anymore. I was really worried.”
Luckily for Uke and her family, her twins — baby girl Palmer and her brother Pascal — were just fine, and were recovering in the neonatal intensive care unit at the hospital following their premature birth.
“Sometimes I look at them in tears. I never knew they would make it. It is amazing what medical professional science can offer,” Uke told Sky News.
Uke, a rheumatology consultant at Birmingham City Hospital in England, developed flu-like symptoms in March at around 24 weeks pregnant, and was put on a ventilator and into an induced coma at Queen Elizabeth Hospital, the outlet reported.
“It was really terrifying,” her husband Matthew told BBC News. “Every passing day, I was hoping my wife was not among those who are dead. … We are a team, [and] the idea she might not be there was really difficult to accept.”
Pascal and Palmer were eventually born via C-section on April 10 at 26 weeks, and were placed in incubators in the NICU.
Two weeks later, Uke awoke, stunned to learn that she had already given birth.
“They were so tiny, they didn’t look like my older kids. I couldn’t touch them, I felt so emotional,” she told Sky News of her two older children, Ronald and Claire.
The twins were eventually discharged from the hospital in August after spending 116 days as patients, and their proud mom said they continue to make progress each day, BBC News reported.
“I had never wanted them to go through this difficult path at the start of their lives,” she told the outlet. “They couldn’t see their mum for two weeks, which obviously made me very sad, but, importantly, things ha[ve] progressed well.”
Glad this story ended with a happy ending. Check out the video below!
