‘Lucky she has a mom’
First-time mother who struggled with infertility almost loses her life after childbirth
First in a series looking at women’s health in N.L.
Christa Fraize thought giving birth would be the easy part after all she went through to have her rainbow baby — a child born after a miscarriage.
The Whitbourne woman was on her sixth pregnancy in six years. She had experienced five miscarriages and a failed round of intrauterine insemination (IUI).
All she wanted was to be a mother. She was 42 when her dream came true.
“My pregnancy was considered a geriatric pregnancy because I was 42 at the time. Surprisingly, the pregnancy was super easy, no morning sickness, no gestational diabetes, nothing,” Fraize said.
An induced labour was planned before her due date on Dec. 15, 2019, because of her age. Fraize didn’t question it.
DIDN’T DILATE
On Dec. 4, she went to the hospital to be induced.
It didn’t work.
“I then had to wait 24 hours before going back (to the hospital) unless I went into labour. Nothing happened,” she said.
On Dec. 5, doctors tried again and again. Nothing worked.
On their fourth attempt, doctors tried to dilate Fraize manually. Once again, the procedure didn’t work.
“I had never heard of this, but basically, they attached a balloon to a catheter and tried to make you dilate. Into my third day, I hadn’t dilated, not one contraction, water didn’t break,” she said.
SCARY BIRTH
After multiple failed attempts to induce her labour, both Fraize and her baby’s health took a turn. Her heart rate dropped, and the baby’s stopped.
Fraize was immediately rushed into an emergency C-section. Her partner wasn’t allowed in.
“Now, imagine this. My first and only child and pregnancy experience. My boyfriend couldn’t be a part of the birth simply because they wouldn’t stop the induction and just schedule a section, one that he could have been a part of if they hadn’t lost my baby’s heartbeat,” Fraize said.
“In less than 10 minutes, I was prepped for surgery and my beautiful baby was born.”
HEALTHY BABY
Fraize’s daughter, Lennox, was born healthy.
Meanwhile, the C-section left Fraize in excruciating pain.
“I thought this is how I should feel. I never had a section before, so I assumed this was normal,” Fraize said.
The doctors told her the pain was trapped gas. Meanwhile, she was missing her child’s first hours in the world.
“I was so exhausted, my boyfriend had to do everything. He changed her, I fed her, he rocked her,” she said.
HEMATOMA
When it came time to be discharged from the hospital, Fraize’s bloodwork showed that her hemoglobin levels were down. Her health-care professionals asked if she lost a lot of blood during the Csection.
She had no idea. She never saw the doctor who performed her C-section. After receiving a CT scan, Fraize found out that she had a hematoma, a blood pocket above the opening of her C-section.
She was given a couple of units of blood and told the blood pocket would more than likely dissolve. She was released the next day, still in pain.
“Me, being excited to just go home and be a mommy, didn’t understand why I still felt so tired, exhausted and in pain,” Fraize said.
BRUISING ON STOMACH
It was a Wednesday when Fraize and her new family left the Health Sciences Centre. A public-health nurse came on Friday to check on her and the baby.
“She checked my staples and said someone would be back on Monday, as Saturday was the seven-day mark to remove the staples.”
When Saturday came around, Fraize asked her boyfriend to check her staples again because she couldn’t lie down.
“I was sleeping by sitting up in a chair, still exhausted. My boyfriend said my staples looked good. No redness or anything,” she said.
SOMETHING BIGGER WAS WRONG
What her boyfriend did notice was massive bruises on Fraize’s stomach. They figured it was her body responding to the trauma of an emergency C-section.
That night, though, she knew something bigger was wrong.
“I woke up freezing, and couldn’t get warm. My parents were still staying with us to help out. She told Justin to call an ambulance or bring me to Whitbourne emergency because I didn’t look good at all,” Fraize said.
‘THOUGHT I WAS IN CARDIAC ARREST’
The couple lives 15 minutes from Whitbourne, so they decided to take her to the closest option.
They left their newborn baby with Fraize’s parents, assuming it would be a relatively quick trip.
When they arrived in Whitbourne, Fraize collapsed.
“The nurse thought I was in cardiac arrest. My heart rate was 170 or something, and my temperature was over 40 degrees.”
Fraize was transferred to the Health Sciences Centre. Her brother, Chad Fraize, is listed as her next of kin for medical procedures. He got the call to admit her to the hospital while she was in an ambulance.
“They called me to admit her because she didn’t get admitted in Whitbourne because she passed out before she had a chance to admit herself,” Chad said.
‘BOTCHED C-SECTION’
At the hospital, Fraize found out she was septic and needed emergency surgery. She would then have to be placed in an induced coma for 24 to 48 hours.
The hematoma the doctors found before she was released from the hospital hadn’t dissolved.
Instead, it developed a flesh-eating disease.
“They found out the problem was the C-section was botched so bad it was bleeding on the inside,” Chad said.
In surgery, doctors had to remove muscle and tissue around Fraize’s organs.
“If I hadn’t went to emergency that night, I would have never woken up again,” Fraize said.
After the surgery, she had more complications.
“They had to do mesh to try to heal it back together,” Chad said. “She was kind of in and out of consciousness throughout that ordeal.”
CODE BLUE
As Christmas approached, Fraize stopped breathing. An X-ray revealed she had fluid in her lungs.
Chad said the doctor wasn’t called because it was a couple of days before Christmas. Health-care staff would make the call after the holiday.
Fraize almost didn’t make it that long. She coded.
“Christa technically died for the first time. No breath, code blue, shocked, zapped her to get her heart beating again, get her moving, cranked up the oxygen to get oxygen into her system, and she came
back to life,” Chad said.
A NIGHTMARE
Describing those days as living in a nightmare, Chad said this was the first of three times his sister was code blue.
“The third time and the last time that she passed, Dad was in the room and noticed her breathing and said there was something wrong with Christa,” he said
“They had a lot of effort to get her back the third time.”
When the doctor came in after Christmas, Chad said, he couldn’t believe what the family experienced.
Fraize had coded because she had litres of fluid in her lungs.
“Imagine having a Coke bottle on your lungs of water and you’re wondering why you couldn’t breathe. This is what was causing a lot of the issues,” Chad said.
‘CARE HAS WORSENED’
Chad is a big supporter of women’s health. He has two children. His wife gave birth to their kids in Toronto and St. John’s almost 30 years ago.
When he compares his wife’s experience to his sister’s, he says the care has worsened.
His daughter was born at the Grace General Hospital in St. John’s.
“(My wife) was there for a couple days before, she was there two to three days after, and then they were still making sure she was willing to go home at that time,” he said.
Chad says his sister was rushed out of the hospital after she gave birth to her daughter.
“We were always told the Health Sciences Centre was supposed to be a better hospital, but the Grace 30 years ago was 10 times better than what the Health Sciences was four years ago when my niece was born.”
‘LUCKY SHE HAS A MOM’
Chad said Lennox is lucky she has a mom.
“She could have been born on Dec. 7 and lost her mom on the 24th. It was that bad,” he said.
While Fraize doesn’t remember the entire experience because she was in and out of consciousness, she knows she spent a lot of time without her baby. The trip to the Whitbourne ER was meant to be quick.
“My baby was four weeks old when I saw her again,” Fraize said.
“My surgery opening didn’t completely heal until April. My little girl was four months old by then.”
STILL HAVING AN IMPACT
Today, Fraize is still affected.
“Due to the life-saving surgery, which I am very thankful for, I now have a massive ventral hernia that will require a major stomach reconstruction and hernia repair due to the fact that so much muscle and tissue had to be removed from the infection,” she said.
Chad still can’t comprehend why they let his sister leave the hospital so quickly after she gave birth.
“Some women are ready to leave in two days, some aren’t. My sister wasn’t. She was one of the ones that could have stayed an extra couple days,” he said.
He says women’s health care must be prioritized.
“Once we get women cared for, then we’ll get cared for, because they’ll make sure we’re taken care of,” he said.