Woman Who Delivered In Coma Meets Son For First Time After 2 Months

A woman in New Hampshire who gave birth while in a medically induced coma due to COVID-19 woke up more than two months later and met her infant for the first time.

Macenzee Keller, from Manchester, tested positive for the virus in November 2021, just days before her delivery. Her condition soon deteriorated and doctors put her in a medically induced coma.

Keller delivered her son Zac via an emergency c-section at Catholic Medical Center on Nov. 28, last year, while she was on a ventilator, WMUR 9 reported. The newborn was healthy, but the mother had to be shifted to Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center where she underwent an Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) treatment.

ECMO is a heart-lung machine used to pump oxygen into the body, meant for patients with a life-threatening condition such as severe lung damage from infections.

"There were times when we were wondering how or if she would be able to recover," Ciaran Moloney, a nurse who treated Keller at the medical center said. However, Keller woke up from a coma after recovering from the COVID-19 infection and met her son for the first time earlier this month.

"It’s big. It’s a new experience, but I’m excited to become a mom," Keller said in a video that captured the moment she first held her son in her arms.

"I actually don’t remember anything other than leaving my house and then waking up two months later," Keller added.

Brandi Milliner, Keller’s mother described her daughter's recovery as miraculous. "[It was] a very long, hard road where we didn’t know if she was going to recover, or what her life would be like if she did recover...Never give up hope, no matter what. Miracles happen every single day," Milliner said, reported 7 News Boston.

Keller, who was unvaccinated when she contracted the virus, said she was waiting to get jabbed after her delivery. She now hopes her story would encourage unvaccinated pregnant women to take the jab.

"I was going to get vaccinated after I gave birth, but then everything happened, so now I’m definitely going to get vaccinated," Keller said. She is now in a rehabilitation center and will return home in a week's time.