A mother recovered after a miraculous near-death experience where her heart stopped beating and 20 people worked to save her. Jessica Grib was 30-years-old at the time when she noticed she felt more tired during her second pregnancy. She went on to deliver her daughter via C-section, and that was when Jessica's fate took a turn for the worse. The condition is called peripartum cardiomyopathy, an uncommon form of heart failure that happens during the last month of pregnancy or up to five months after giving birth.
Once Jessica hit the recovery room after her C-section, doctors noticed how her oxygen levels plummeted. According to Medical Press, a statement from Jessica's husband indicated that her heart rate was all over the place and doctors couldn't stabilize it. "That's really the first indication that something was really going wrong," Kevin Grib, Jessica's husband remarked. Eventually, doctors sent Jessica to the cardiac catheterization lab so they could get a good look at her heart.
Along the way, Jessica stopped breathing and it took six people and 10 minutes to resuscitate her. Doctors determined her heart's blood flow could not meet the demand of her body's organs for oxygen. Jessica was put on a ventilator and implanted a device in her heart to keep her blood pumping. She was then stabilized and transferred to another hospital with specialized equipment to keep her alive.
That is when the Grib family was faced with the devastating news. The doctors told Kevin that Jessica's heart had to start working on its own within two weeks. Kevin recalled the moment of what the doctors explained his wife's grave situation, "He really laid out that this was going to be an incredible uphill battle, and even if we got her back, there was a small chance we would get her back in a fully functioning state."
During the time of Jessica's hospital stay, lots of people came in and out to see her. After a few days, family members noticed an occasional blip on her heart monitor. Eventually, the blips turned into more regular beating. "My heart was recovering itself, which is pretty amazing," Jessica stated about the miraculous turn of fate. Eventually, doctors were able to wean Jessica from the life support machine after about five days, but her vital signs were still troubling. Jessica's blood pressure was still high, and her heart rate was all over the place. After about two weeks, her vital signs stabilized and she awoke from the heavy sedation to be reunited with her family.
Afterward, Jessica worked hard in physical therapy, but it would be a long journey ahead. Her recovery would take time because she couldn't walk long distances or hold Amelia, [her newborn daughter's pacifier] because of difficulty with fine motor skills. On top of that, she had excruciating headaches. That's when the doctor suggested testing her for a tumor.
They found a tumor next to her adrenal gland and removing it would be the sure-fire answer to Jessica getting her life back. "It was extremely dangerous, high-risk because the tumor secreted all this adrenaline into my body and made my heart stop the first time," Jessica said. However, the surgery was a success and six weeks later, Jessica's life returned to normal. Jessica is now an advocate for heart health and continues to share her amazing, fearless story with other mothers to spread awareness about the life-threatening condition she endured.
"I had a baby in America in a hospital in 2016, so I had no idea that I would have been fighting for my life," said Jessica, who was otherwise healthy and exercised into her third trimester. "I had never heard of this before with either of my pregnancies."
Sources: Medical Press, Heart.org, Instagram- @heartmama929