“I can walk to the ambulance myself,” I answered.

“Olga, it is for your and our safety. You need to lie on the stretcher.”

I did. They wheeled me out through the halls of the hospital. I didn’t look or feel like I was sick. Someone young like me shouldn’t need to be in a stretcher. I was the center of attention and it embarrassed me.

The ride was smooth with no sirens and no flashing lights. Inside the ambulance, my blood pressure increased and the nurse worried. When we arrived at OHSU, the driver wheeled me out from the ambulance. On a stretcher, I met the faces of new doctors, nurses and patients. Again, I could not believe it was me on that stretcher. Embarrassed, I was ready to hide my face under the blanket.

The paramedics took me to the intensive care room of the delivery unit. Two nurses gave me medications, started IVs, measured my blood pressure, and took blood for several tests. Then, the cardiologist, neonatologist and medical students came to introduce themselves.

The cardiologist said, “Olga, we will try to keep you pregnant as long as possible, because it is too early for your baby to be born.”

“I know. I still have ten weeks to be pregnant. I can’t have my baby born today,” I answered, not even thinking of all the things that can really go wrong…

The nurses monitored the baby’s heartbeat. During the day, the monitor would often beep to show that the baby’s heart rate was dropping and then it would recover. I did not know a lot about Preeclampsia and did not ask many questions because the nurses were busy. They were completing doctor’s orders, trying to decide if I should eat or not. I was very hungry, but had to wait and didn’t know why. Later, I understood that they did not want me to eat before the surgery. They were not sure how soon they might have to do the C-section. I was given a shot with steroids, which was supposed to help our baby’s lungs open, in case he was born early.

In the evening, Oleg and the children came to visit me. The children told me about their first day at school and then asked, “How soon you are coming home, Mama?”

“I hope, very soon,” I said.

“Today after work it took me two hours to read all the papers that our children brought from school,” Oleg said. “I had to sign so many of them and wished you were home to do that.”

I just smiled and said, “It is good for you, honey, to see what mothers usually do, all the things which seem to be easy.”

After about an hour, Oleg and the children left for home. Tired, I fell asleep.

…….

Just before midnight, a worried nurse woke me up.

“Olga, your baby’s heart is stopping about every five minutes,” she said. “The doctors are deciding whether to do the C-section or not.”

Frightened and sleepy, I was trying to wake up and realize what was happening. Three doctors walked into my room.

“Why is my baby’s heart stopping every five minutes?” I asked, confused.

“Your high blood pressure and the protein in your urine is causing your baby’s heart to stop,” the first doctor explained. “His heart defect is not the problem. It is you, Olga, who developed not only preeclampsia, but eclampsia, the final and most severe phase. Your placenta started to secrete substances that can cause dysfunction in your blood vessels. You may start having seizures or go into a coma. It also can damage your liver and kidneys. Both you and the baby can die. Basically, your body is killing your baby.”

“Olga, with his heart defect, your baby has less than 1% chance to survive,” added the second doctor. “You have two options. One is to let the nature take its course and let your baby die. We will induce you and remove the baby from your womb without surgery. The second option is to do an emergency C-section. We would not recommend the C-section because it’s a major surgery and your baby has such a small chance to live.”