I never thought I would almost die

I never thought I would almost die the day my daughter was born.

At 40 weeks and 4 days, my baby flipped into a breech position, so I was scheduled for a c-section the next day. I was nervous, but my doctor said it was normal and everything would be okay. I had the surgery, heard my daughter cry—and then everything went wrong.

I suddenly couldn’t breathe, and as my husband and baby were being taken out of the operating room, I went into cardiac arrest. The team rushed me back in to figure out what was happening. Then I started bleeding heavily because of a condition called DIC—my blood couldn’t clot.

In the next two days, I had four surgeries, including a hysterectomy, to stop the bleeding and save my life. My belly had to be left open with a machine pulling out the blood. Later, I found out I had survived a rare condition called amniotic fluid embolism, which happens in only 1 out of every 40,000 pregnancies.

I also had a stroke and needed 37 units of blood—so much that the hospital’s blood supply was almost gone. I was able to go home after 10 days, but had to go back again for another two days because of more bleeding.

I’m beyond thankful to be alive—and even more thankful that I didn’t suffer any lasting damage, even though doctors warned my family that I probably would.