Vancouver Mom Recounts Giving Birth While In Coma

Angela Primachenko's life changed drastically in March 2020 -- along with the rest of the world.

A resident of Vancouver, Washington, Primachenko told KATU she started getting sniffly while she was over 30 weeks pregnant. She initially thought it was allergies.

"I just thought it was allergies," Primachenko said. "I didn't even think that was a possibility, but I gradually started getting more and more sick. But I started having a fever--it was at 102, 103, 102, 103." She had no health issues previously, as well.

The mother started getting worse and worse from this mysterious illness, and then she was tested positive for COVID-19. The hospital Primachenko went to kept one night, and her condition got worse from there. The mother reportedly had to be put on a ventilator to help her breathe.

That's when doctors decided to intubate her for nine days.

"During those nine days, they delivered my baby for me. I didn't have a C-section; I had a normal delivery," Primachenko told reporters. After a total of 21 days in the hospital, she was released, but her new daughter, Ava, remained in the ICU, the mother said. She wasn't allowed to see her until she had "two negative COVID tests back to back."

"I didn't realize that the hardest journey would be after I came home," said Primachenko, adding that brief reprieves of normalcy still felt off to her. "Even when we took her home, having lost that birthing and intimacy part, we had compassion for her, but she didn't feel like ours."

More than a year after Primachenko's coma, the mom is always kept busy by Ava, now one year old, and her two-year-old daughter, Emily.

"It was quite a year, but I couldn't be more thankful for how the year turned out," the Vancouver mom said. "Definitely the hardest year of my life, but also the most rewarding year of my life."

You can read more about Primachenko's harrowing story here.

Photo: Getty Images