When I found out I was pregnant with our second baby in November 2021 we were overjoyed! What was hopefully going to be an easy pregnancy since I had an almost 2 year old as well.
At my 20 week ultrasound I was referred to the high risk pregnancy floor at the IWK Health Centre in Halifax where I found out I had placenta previa and placenta accreta. After asking and learning about placenta accreta, I was terrified.
At 33 weeks pregnant I started heavily bleeding which slowed some for two weeks. I was admitted to the IWK to watch and wait. Keeping a balance of letting our baby grow inside vs how low my iron levels were getting. I did multiple iron infusions over those couple of weeks.
The day I was 35 weeks pregnant I started bleeding uncontrollably and was rushed into the operating room for a c-section hysterectomy. My baby girl was born healthy at 5 lbs 3 oz but I had a long way to go in surgery still.
The accreta was much worse than they had anticipated so even though we had a surgical plan everything went sideways. To save my life my anesthesia team provided over 30 units of blood products while the surgeons performed the c-section hysterectomy. The next day I woke up, confused and in pain, I was transported to the ICU department at another hospital in Halifax right after surgery.
I am so grateful for every person who donated blood that saved my life. I am here and alive with my husband and our two beautiful daughters. I’ve always known how important it is to donate but this really made it stick how life can change in a single instant and it takes the extremely generous donors to save lives.
