‘I was as close to death as it gets’
A mum who lost three-quarters of her blood supply when the birth of her daughter went disastrously wrong has paid tribute to NHS staff for saving her life. Health correspondent Mark Smith heard her remarkable story
KATIE Smith, a support worker from Barry, unexpectedly welcomed little Amelia Smith into the world in a lift at the University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff.
Despite her baby daughter being given a clean bill of health, Katie almost died when her uterus stopped working and her blood failed to clot.
Doctors said the mum of five lost 73% of her entire blood supply and needed emergency surgery under general anaesthetic to stem the bleeding.
The 38-year-old said she wouldn’t be alive today if it wasn’t for the various teams of NHS staff at the hospital who helped her before, during and after Amelia’s birth.
“From the very, very beginning the staff at the hospital couldn’t have done enough for us,” she said.
“Nobody expected things to happen the way they did as the births of my four boys had gone so smoothly. My husband would be parenting alone if it wasn’t for the care I received.”
Katie, who works as part of the children’s community nursing team at Cardiff and Vale University Health Board, started experiencing problems with bleeding during the final 10 weeks of her pregnancy.
“I was constantly in and out of hospital. I’d be in for three days then back home for five, then back in again,” she added.
“At the end of my pregnancy I was in for nine days continuously. At 37 weeks they decided to induce me as the pregnancy was classed as fullterm.
“The length of my induction was two-and-a-half days, which is a really long time. With my other pregnancies I’d always gone one week over [my due
date]. My body just wasn’t ready to deliver a baby.”
But within five minutes, Katie went from being 0cm dilated to feeling the sudden urge to push.
“I didn’t know what was wrong with me. I was desperately needing gas and air and yet I wasn’t even a centimetre dilated. I just didn’t understand,” she said.
“Then all of a sudden I felt I needed to push. I was still on an induction ward bed and the midwives were desperately trying to get me onto a delivery bed.
“But while I was in the lift, with my husband, two midwives and a student midwife, the baby arrived.
“Amelia was fine, but I started bleeding out and they couldn’t stop it.”
Katie was rushed into theatre where a surgical balloon was placed inside her in a bid to stop the bleeding from the uterus.
“I was as close to death as it gets. I was in a really bad way,” recalled Katie. “I am so fortunate to be here today.”
When the doctors and nurses managed to successfully replace all of the blood Katie had lost, she was well enough to see Amelia properly for the first time the following morning.
“Because my arms were full of drips and catheters, I couldn’t hold or lift her myself, so I just lay there with Amelia on me with her tucked into my top.
“I recovered so quickly once they’d put the blood back in me. I felt like Usain Bolt I had so much energy.”
Katie said she was monitored by midwives for four weeks after the birth and as given a “debrief” by staff because the ordeal was so traumatic.
She was also under the expert care of the health board’s perinatal team who ensured her postpartum anxiety was kept in check.
“I couldn’t fault any of the teams I came across,” she added.
Now aged two, little Amelia – who was born on June 23, 2016 – is thriving and is looking forward to spending Christmas with her brothers Jacob, Mason, Logan and Finley and dad Andrew Smith.