It was a heartwarming scene at a New York hospital Wednesday as a mother who gave birth while in a medically induced coma after being diagnosed with COVID-19 met her son for the first time.
Yanira Soriano of Bay Shore, New York, was admitted to Southside Hospital earlier this month. The 36-year-old, who was then in her 34th week of pregnancy, had been having difficulty breathing.
Soriano tested positive for COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, after which doctors decided to put her in a medically induced coma and place her on a ventilator.
Her son, Walter, was delivered April 3 via an emergency C-section.
Though Soriano was taken off of the ventilator on Monday, she had to wait until Wednesday to be discharged from the hospital, at which point she finally got to hold her baby.
“In most instances, you’re awake when you deliver the baby and you can bond with the baby right away,” Dr. Benjamin Schwartz of Southside Hospital told ABC 7 News. “But in this context, because the mom was so ill, she had to be put on a ventilator and put to sleep right before the baby was born.”
“She was not awake when her baby was born and did not hear the baby cry or have any opportunity to meet him right after his birth,” he said.
On Twitter, CNN’s Sonia Moghe shared footage of medical professionals cheering on Soriano as she was being discharged.
Schwartz called it “an incredibly proud moment,” adding, “It takes many, many people over many, many shifts to provide the level of care that this patient needed.”
Walter has reportedly tested negative for COVID-19, but will continue to be monitored by his doctors in the coming weeks.
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