Pregnant woman dies of COVID-19, doctors manage to save baby

BATON ROUGE, La. - A pregnant woman from Baton Rouge passed away Thursday due to complications from COVID-19, but doctors at Woman’s Hospital successfully delivered her baby, according to local news station WBRZ.

Family told WBRZ that the mother, Allie Guidry, was hospitalized with the novel coronavirus at the end of May. She was placed on a ventilator, but her condition was not improving.

Allie, 29, was not due to give birth until October. According a GoFundMe page started for the family to help with medical bills and funeral expenses, doctors had to do an emergency c-section, and were able to deliver the two-pound baby at just 25 weeks.

Allie’s fiance, Michael Conish, is one of the hospital’s patient transporters. He told WBRZ, "We'd like people to know to take this virus seriously." He added, "But do not stop living your life — be cautious, be careful. It's no joke."

The baby, named Madeline, is currently being cared for in the NICU at Woman’s Hospital, where she is currently in stable condition.

In Louisiana, 54,769 COVID-19 cases had been reported as of June 26, in addition to 3,077 deaths.

According to a report published by the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention, pregnant women who become infected with the coronavirus may be at a greater risk of hospitalization than women who aren't pregnant.

Between Jan. 22 and June 7, the CDC received reports on 326,335 women between the ages of 15 to 44 who tested positive for the virus. Data on pregnancy status was available for 91,412 of the women with infections, and among them, 8,207 were pregnant.

The study found that pregnant women were 5.4 times more likely to be hospitalized than non-pregnant women, 1.5 times more likely to be admitted to the ICU, and 1.7 times more likely to receive mechanical ventilation, after adjusting for age, the presence of underlying conditions and race or ethnicity.

The risk of dying from COVID-19 didn’t appear greater for pregnant women — reported at 0.2% for both groups, the CDC said.