Hailey Okula, a nurse influencer, has died after giving birth to her first child, a son named Crew, her husband told CBS Los Angeles. They had dealt with infertility for almost two years.
Okula, a 33-year-old ER nurse known online as “Nurse Hailey,” openly shared her journey with infertility and pregnancy on social media to her to nearly 1 million followers combined.
On Tuesday, Okula’s husband Matthew Okula, a Los Angeles Fire Department firefighter, confirmed the news on her Instagram.
“Hailey’s strength was unparalleled. Words can’t describe how badly we wanted to be parents. After years of infertility struggles and a long, challenging IVF process, we were overjoyed to be expecting Crew,” he wrote on her page, rnnewgrads. “Hailey faced every hurdle with so much courage and love—even though her body went through so much, she never wavered.”
Matthew Okula told CBS Los Angeles his wife gave birth via C-section, and he cut the umbilical cord.
“That was the one time she had the opportunity to see what she worked so hard to give me,” Matthew Okula said.
Then, he went into the room next door to wait with their son. A minute later, he says the doctor told him they were performing CPR on Okula. He rushed back to be with her, and remembered the last words he said to her.
“I told her how proud I was and I kissed her and she knew how much I loved her,” he said.
He said Okula suffered an amniotic fluid embolism, a rare life-threatening complication that can occur during delivery or shortly after. He said he is trying to channel his grief into raising awareness for the dangerous condition while parenting their newborn son.
“I never, never even could have imagined any sort of scenario being like this,” he told CBS Los Angeles.
A GoFundMe page created to help Crew and his newly single father amassed more than its goal of $250,000 as of Thursday. Later this month, Okula’s family will hold a vigil in Huntington Beach, California, CBS Los Angeles reported.
What is amniotic fluid embolism?
An amniotic fluid embolism, or anaphylactic syndrome of pregnancy, is a rare, life-threatening complication that can occur after during delivery or shortly after.
It happens when amniotic fluid, the liquid that surrounds the fetus in the uterus during pregnancy, gets into the mother’s bloodstream, the Cleveland Clinic explains.
According to the clinic, the exact cause is unknown. Amniotic fluid entering your bloodstream is a normal part of childbirth, but some people have a severe allergic response to the amniotic fluid, which is mostly water with fetal cells and tissue, mixing with their blood.
The reaction can lead to lung and heart failure, and like in Okula’s case, cardiac arrest, which is when your heart stops beating.
People with amniotic fluid embolism may also “bleed uncontrollably from their uterus or C-section incision,” the clinic notes.
The complication affects 1 in every 40,000 deliveries in the United States, according to the Amniotic Fluid Embolism Foundation, an education, research and support organization for impacted families.
“For perspective, there are approximately 4 million deliveries in the United States meaning approximately 100 women may suffer an amniotic fluid embolism,” the foundation’s website notes, adding published rates of survivability range from 20 to 60%.
“Although survivability has increased over the last 20 years with advances in critical care and obstetric medicine, it cannot be emphasized enough that an amniotic fluid embolism is extremely difficult to treat and considered one of the most fatal birth complications in the world,” the foundation adds.
