My very healthy, 19 year-old daughter’s near-perfect pregnancy ended in tragedy, immediately after she pushed out the placenta. The cause of death was cited as “intracranial hemorrhage”.

On December 23, 2009, my daughter, Brittany, went to the OB-GYN for her weekly checkup. She was almost ready to deliver, and she had a normal checkup. On December 27, 2009, Brittany was in great physical condition, happy and feeling great! She had no known problems throughout her pregnancy, except for a little swelling of her legs during the 9th month, and unrelenting, severe back pain during the final couple of days. - On December 28, 2009, Brittany went for her weekly checkup. She was very excited, because it was her due date. - Her doctor saw protein in her urine, and sent her straight to the hospital for further testing. Her blood-pressure was normal. - Because of the protein, she was diagnosed with Preeclampsia, and admitted to the hospital, but they were baffled, because she did not have high blood-pressure. - We were told the cure was for Brittany to deliver, and labor was induced. - She was told natural child birth was her only option, because her platelet count was too low to do a c-section. The back pain did not allow her to be comfortable in any position. They gave her pain medication that seemed to relieve it for about 8 hours, as labor progressed. - They switched her pain medication, and everything changed. She appeared to be very, very drunk. She started throwing up stomach acid. - When delivery was imminent, they added magnesium, and the throw-up changed to dark water. She was so drunk I was afraid she was going to choke. They let the pain mediation wear off, but nothing changed. Everyone seemed confident that she would deliver and everything would be fine. - On December 29, 2009 at approximately 10:20 p.m., Brittany pushed out her son, Andrew. - Then, she was told that she had to push out the placenta. She did so, and immediately thereafter, her head jerked to the right, as if she had a seizure, and she was gone. - The hospital went into emergency status. We were told she was going into shock and instructed to leave the room, and within seconds, she was rushed from the delivery room into an operating room. - About an hour later, the duty surgeon came out and told us that her heart had stopped, they were able to get it started again, and all organs were functioning properly, but the he did not like the color of her brain. - Shortly thereafter, a cat-scan revealed the brain hemorrhage. The next day, further tests confirmed there was no hope, the brain was dead. - The doctors offered a theory that she had experienced an “Amniotic Fluid Embolism”, but they could not ascertain the true cause of the intracranial hemorrhage. The results of an unlimited autopsy offered no additional information. - The only further explanation offered was that the Preeclampsia had progressed into HELLP Syndrome, and her platelet count had dropped too low, resulting in a brain bleed.