The birth of a baby is quite a special moment. One that a mother doesn’t usually forget. However, one Texas mother did not remember delivering her triplets due to experiencing a rare post-partum condition. It was a life-changing experience for her, her husband, and her family.
30-year-old Marisa Christie gave birth to her triplets, Charlotte, Kendall, and Collins, in August 2024 at Memorial Hermann The Woodlands Medical Center in Houston, Texas. But after her planned C-section, things took a turn. “The doctors had pulled all three [babies] out. Actually, they were resting them on my stomach to do a delayed cord clamping,” Marisa shares “My arms flew up, and that was when my heart stopped.”
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Marisa experienced what is called an amniotic fluid embolism. This is a rare complication that can arise after birth, where the amniotic fluid surrounding the baby or the fetal material, such as fetal cells, enters the mother’s bloodstream. Marisa became unconscious for a week after this happened and did not learn about giving birth to the girls until she woke up. She had no memory of giving birth to them.
“My husband was like, ‘Hey, so we had the babies. They’re healthy and great,’ ” Marisa told Today. “I was absolutely terrified … How could I not remember having my babies?”
Marisa didn’t meet her babies for the “first” time until they were over a week old. “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,’” she said. “It took a little bit to get that connection with them.”
Not remembering delivering the triplets, realizing the babies were already a week old, and trying to come to terms with all that had happened had to be pretty tricky for the now mom of four. Marisa also has a 4-year-old son.
Dr. Amber Samuel, Marisa’s physician, delivered the babies. However, it was the anesthesiologist, Dr. Ricardo Mora, who noticed something was wrong and that she was seizing. He had seen another mom with an amniotic fluid embolism 15 years earlier.
“She [was] essentially gray. I knew something terrible just occurred,” Dr. Mora said. “It’s pretty catastrophic. When it occurs, it’s about 80%, 85% fatal.”
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Dr. Samuel had just started pulling the placenta out, which according to Dr. Mora, is usually when this type of thing occurs.
Marisa was given CPR and put on ECHO (extracorporeal membrane oxygenation) which is artificial life support for those whose lungs and heart aren’t working right.
“She essentially lost what we consider her whole blood volume. We replaced her blood volume. So, for 45 minutes, she was clinically dead.” Dr. Mora 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.”
Marisa also needed to have a hysterectomy and was left with an open wound. Nine weeks went by and her wound finally healed. Then, a week after she headed home, Charlotte, the first of the babies joined her. The other two, Kendall and Collins, followed shortly after.
As you can imagine the whole experience was life changing for Marisa. “I feel very disconnected to 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,” she said. “There were so many miracles that led up to me living instead of dying and we’re grateful."
And yes, with an 80/85% fatality rate for amniotic fluid embolism, God was watching out for Marisa, and her babies. Thankfully she is home to be a mom to them and her son, along with her husband Dylan. Many prayers to her continued healing.
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"Heal me, Lord, and I will be healed; save me and I will be saved, for you are the one I praise." - Jeremiah 17:14
h/t: People
Photo Credit: YouTube/Hello Woodlands