New medical device at local hospital helps save mother's life after delivery
The birth of a child easily ranks as one of the happiest moments in a mom's life. It can also be one of the scariest.
ALBANY, N.Y. (NEWS10) -- The birth of a child easily ranks as one of the happiest moments in a mom's life. It can also be one of the scariest. Any number of complications can occur, including postpartum hemorrhaging, which is one of the leading causes of death during childbirth.
A local mom was recently faced with that emergency as doctors rushed to save her life with the help of a new device.
Megan Hasick clearly recalls the morning of her son's delivery at St. Peters Hospital. "Everything was going smoothly. Delivery went smoothly."
But as is the case for many parents, the moments after welcoming a new baby into the world can feel like a blur. "I had him, holding him in recovery. Then was about to be removed to my post-partum room and that's when I began hemorrhaging," Hasick remembered.
What started as a smooth delivery turned concerning on the morning of April 10, soon after welcoming her second baby.
"I think I realized, okay, this was pretty serious. As the hours went on and on, I wasn't with Kade. I wasn't with my husband. So, I kind of knew, okay, this is serious," she said.
While in recovery, Megan suffered a postpartum hemorrhage. She was bleeding excessively. Dr. Noel Varghese explained, "A woman can die. A woman can die. She may need emergency surgery."
Megan lost about four liters of blood that morning. A woman typically has about 7 liters in her body during pregnancy, according to Dr. Varghese, who was in the delivery room that morning.
"The uterus is just a muscle. And it's good for squeezing babies out. And unfortunately, the muscle fatigues. It doesn't always squeeze effectively after the woman has delivered her baby," he explained.
"I do remember he called for the JADA device, very soon after the code blue was called," Hasick said.
The new device has been used only handful of times. Dr. Varghese added, "When it works, it's very effective."
"Once it's inserted, they blow it up like a balloon, and it applies pressure to your uterus to stop bleeding," Hasick added.
Dr. Varghese said, "It creates a suction within the uterine wall, this butts against the cervix and creates a seal."
Dr. Varghese stopped the bleeding in a matter of minutes, helping the uterus contract back properly. "It bought us a lot of time. It bought us the ability to do the final steps toward making sure she didn't bleed heavily afterward."
"When I was in the ICU recovering, the nurses had never seen it before. So they were also looking at it, trying to figure out how it worked. They were very intrigued, too," Hasick recalled.
The simple contraption, providing life-saving results for her. "I don't like to think about it, but I do think about what would have happened to me if they didn't have it. I just kept thinking the whole time of my daughter, and that I have a new baby," she said.
That new baby is now three months old and just as calm as mom was throughout the whole ordeal. According to the company, the JADA system has been 94% effective in controlling abnormal postpartum bleeding.