For 18 days after Erika Becerra gave birth, she fought for her life, hooked up to a ventilator in a Detroit hospital, NBC News reports.
Diagnosed with COVID-19 on Nov. 7 at just shy of nine months pregnant, Becerra, 33, was otherwise healthy, relatives said, and excited to welcome her second child.
Initially, her coronavirus symptoms were manageable at home: body aches and some tightness in her chest, Claudia Garcia, Becerra’s aunt and godmother, said.
But then, Becerra started having problems breathing, and her husband, a landscaper, rushed her to the hospital by ambulance. With her condition worsening by the day, doctors opted to induce Becerra on Nov. 15, a couple weeks before her due date, Garcia said.
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Becerra’s son, Diego, was born healthy. But chaos followed his birth: Becerra’s oxygen level plummeted, the doctors at Henry Ford Hospital told Garcia. Instead of getting to cradle her baby boy, Becerra had to be intubated.