A coronavirus patient who delivered her baby while in a medically-induced coma has finally been able to meet her infant son after two weeks of separation.
As Good Morning America reported, 36-year-old Yanira Soriano was recently reunited with her newborn son who was delivered 34 weeks premature via an emergency cesarean section.
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At the beginning of April, Soriano was hospitalized at Southside Hospital in Bay Shore, New York.
There, the mom-to-be tested positive for both pneumonia and COVID-19. In an effort to improve her breathing, she was quickly put on a ventilator before undergoing an emergency C-section while under general anesthesia and in a medically induced coma.
“She was not awake when her baby was born and did not hear the baby cry or have any opportunity to meet him right after his birth,” Dr. Benjamin Schwartz, chairman of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Southside Hospital, explained .
For nearly two weeks after her son was born, Soriano remained in the ICU while her baby was transferred to a New York children’s hospital.
Gradually she began to recover from the virus and was soon taken off her ventilator after 11 days.
Then finally, on April 15, she was discharged from the hospital and was able to meet her newborn son, named Walter, for the first time.
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While wearing a face mask, Soriano was wheeled outside the building, and got quite the reception from delighted staff.
Video shows the new mom being hailed with cheers and applause from awaiting medical workers as she finally emerges from the hospital.
There, the new mom is finally able to hold little Walter in her arms and cradle him close.
A video of the heartwarming meeting was captured and has since gone viral online.
The clip, which was uploaded to Twitter by CNN anchor Jake Tapper, has over 320,000 views and nearly 25,000 likes.
Schwartz said the tearful meeting is an “incredibly proud moment” for staff at Southside Hospital.
“It takes many, many people over many, many shifts to provide the level of care that this patient needed,” he said.
“As you know, many patients that end up on a ventilator with a COVID-pneumonia do not survive, and the fact that this mom not only survived but was able to get out of her wheelchair and walk into her car and hold her baby gives us all incredible hope for future patients and our existing patients that have COVID disease.”
h/t: Good Morning America
