![]() ![]() Her family even attends their Christmas parties, where Santa arrives, of course, by helicopter. She’s part of the AirMed family now, Woods said. The young mother would go on to adopt two more children. They shocked the medical professionals by introducing Cali in person, alive and well. Her baby was not viable.īut she lived, perhaps the world’s only known survivor at the time of a spontaneous amniotic fluid embolism, according to the medical team’s research.Ĭali’s case is so extraordinary that Woods and another flight nurse presented it at an AirMed conference a few years ago. Doctors removed Cali’s torn uterus to stop the bleeding. ![]() In the end, Woods’ guess during those first chaotic moments in Stansbury Park had been right. Medical staff rushed to replenish her body with pint after pint of blood. Most amniotic fluid embolisms are only identified during autopsies, because the mothers don’t survive.Ĭali started to hemorrhage. “I didn’t know if she was going to survive.”ĭoctors ran test after test. “I remember breaking down and sobbing after this flight,” she recalled. During the flight, the size of Cali’s abdomen kept growing.Īs the hospital took charge of her patient that day in 2012, Woods felt extremely emotional. The AirMed helicopter rose up and flew toward University of Utah Hospital. Her iPod-sized, portable ultrasound showed a beating heart. What she knew for certain was that the baby, a boy, was still alive. In her many years of OB nursing, Woods had never seen an amniotic fluid embolism, but Cali’s breathing issues, agitated state, and internal bleeding suggested this could be the first. The condition is extremely rare and typically leads to the mother’s death. She also wondered if Cali might be experiencing an amniotic fluid embolism, in which amniotic fluid leaks into the mother, mixing with her blood. Woods suspected a placental abruption, which means the placenta had separated from the uterine wall. Windi Woods, a flight nurse who specialized in high-risk obstetrics, felt Cali's stomach: hard. The AirMed team knew they couldn’t transport Cali in this state, so they sedated and intubated her, giving her oxygen, which-once again-saved her life. Only prenatal vitamins and blood thinners, Josh said. Then, AirMed arrived.Ī flight nurse assumed the young mother was a drug user who had overdosed and asked her husband what she was on. She was combative, probably from lack of oxygen, kicking at the stretcher straps. EMTs carried Cali on a stretcher to the front yard. While Josh kept his 24-year-old wife alive, an AirMed helicopter headed toward their house in Stansbury Park.īut an ambulance got there first. Josh, who had never done CPR before, pulled his wife to the floor and followed directions. The 911 operator could hear her and told her husband to start CPR. He started dialing 911 as he ran up the stairs.īy now, Cali was moaning and making strange sounds. ![]() Josh sensed that his wife, 21 weeks pregnant with a history of blood clots, was in crisis. “I need help!” she cried, sounding breathless. But as her husband watched football downstairs, his phone rang, her on the other end. The AFE Foundation reports that the mortality rate for infants still in the womb is around 65 percent.Cali Hinckley should have been quietly asleep in her bedroom, curled next to her 2-year-old daughter that June afternoon. InfantĪccording to the AFE Foundation, estimated mortality rates for infants with AFE are also varied.Īround 30 percent of infants with AFE don’t survive, per a 2016 study published in the Journal of Anesthesiology Clinical Pharmacology. Health conditions may include postpartum depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Mental and emotional challenges can also occur, especially if the baby doesn’t survive. heart damage that can be short-term or permanent.Women who survive AFE can often have long-term complications, which can include: Older reports estimate that up to 80 percent of women don’t survive, although more recent data estimates that this number is about 40 percent. Per the AFE Foundation, estimated rates of mortality for women with AFE are varied. ![]()
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