It would have taken Macenzee Keller more than two months to complete the task, as she battled for her life against COVID-19 under sedation, breathing with machines, and while still conscious.
Mother and child were reunited when Keller’s mother brought Zachery, a healthy baby boy weighing in at 11 pounds and 13 ounces, to her hospital bed.
Keller said, “It was very emotionally because I was like: ‘Oh! I got to finally see baby that I had been waiting for so many years.'” Keller has since returned to Manchester, New Hampshire.
Keller was diagnosed two weeks before her Dec. 7, due date with COVID-19. Keller recalled leaving her apartment to go to the hospital on Nov. 27 suffering from shortness and then that was it.
Zachery, her son, was born via emergency Cesarean Section at Catholic Medical Center in Manchester the following day. At that time, she was intubated and sedated.
Later, she was transferred to Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center located in the city of Lebanon.
Keller, who was still very sick and sedated, was placed on a blood oxygenation treatment. The blood was pumped from Keller’s body to an extracorporeal membrane oxygenation device, ECMO, which removes carbon dioxide and then pumps it back into her body.
“People like Macenzee, who are younger and have an excellent chance of getting better — she is kind of the perfect candidate to us to offer it,” Ciaran Moloney said. She was part of Macenzee’s care team at Dartmouth–Hitchcock.
Other cases have seen pregnant mothers with COVID-19 so severe that they had to give birth quickly. A Wisconsin mother suffered from COVID-19 and was in a medically-induced state when she gave birth by cesarean section in November 2020. She spent 75 days on life- and lung support. Two months later, she met her daughter and was released from the hospital.
Keller spent 47 days on the ECMO circuit. Moloney stated that patients usually receive the treatment within a month. He said that a physician who was handling the patient’s treatment had seen research showing that ECMO can be beneficial for post-partum patients.
Sometimes it was touch and go. Keller was still connected to a ventilator.
Moloney stated that she would sometimes come in for a few days, and she would take larger breaths. Then she would experience setbacks. She had a lot of setbacks on the ECMO circuit. … We were sometimes very afraid of her actions at times.”
Moloney provided phone updates to Keller’s mother Brandi Milliner. She participated with family members in Zoom calls during holidays “just to hopefully still hear us, and know that we were still there for her.”
Keller finally allowed her to visit on January 7.
“They were beginning to wean off some sedation. Milliner explained that I was able to go in and she would open her eyes slightly. She also followed small commands. “She had squeezed my hand several times by the end of my visit,” Milliner said. That was an incredible feeling.
Keller’s performance improved over the following weeks and she was eventually taken off the equipment. It took Keller a while to see where she was and how she got there.
“Does it feel like you can fall asleep and wake up the next day? Keller said, “That’s how I felt.”
She was soon able to walk with a walker and continued to improve her mobility.
Keller wasn’t vaccinated against COVID-19 and said she intended to wait until after her delivery to get it. She had heard that some people experience nausea for up to a day after receiving the vaccine. “I was just nervous that it would cause complications to Zachery,” she said.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, COVID-19 vaccination should be recommended for pregnant women. The vaccine’s benefits outweigh any potential risks during pregnancy.
Keller was told by doctors that she must wait for a few more weeks before she can get vaccinated.
She said that she didn’t think she would have made the same decision in hindsight. While a part of me believes I would have gotten the vaccine, another part of my brain says that I didn’t want to risk anything.
Keller is engaged and will marry soon. She still uses a pulseoximeter to monitor her blood oxygen levels. Additionally, she has regular therapy appointments to aid her walking. Moloney stated that her recovery was remarkable.
He said that “She went completely dependent on the ECMO pump and became fully interactive in a matter of weeks.”
He said, “My wife found out that she was pregnant around the same period, which made it very difficult for me to witness all that Macenzee was going though.”
