Woman wakes from seven-week COVID coma to find she's given birth to baby girl

A mother woke from a seven-week coronavirus coma to discover she had given birth to a baby girl.

Laura Ward, 33, a teaching assistant from Tyldesley, Wigan, fell ill with COVID-19 while pregnant with her daughter, Hope.

Her condition deteriorated to the point where she was sedated for an emergency caesarean section at 31 weeks, more than two months before her due date of 15 October.

Hope was born weighing 3lb 7oz at Royal Bolton Hospital and spent five weeks on the neonatal ward, but is now fit and healthy.

But the last thing Ward can remember is being on the COVID-19 ward.

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She came down with “a bit of a cough” when she finished work for the summer holidays, and tested positive for coronavirus.

After struggling to breathe, she spent a fortnight in hospital, before being told her baby may have to be delivered early.

Her partner, John Leece, 37, was called to the hospital but, due to COVID-19 restrictions, was not allowed into the theatre for the birth.

Ward’s next memory was waking up seven weeks later, on 30 September, to be greeted with the sight of her new baby daughter.

"I opened my eyes to see Hope on the bed with me, but I couldn't move any part of my body," she said.

"All I could do was shake and nod my head."

Having had tracheostomy and feeding tubes fitted, it was two weeks before Ms Ward was able to speak again.

"I was just lying in bed at first and not able to move at all," she said. "I tried really hard to lift my arms but I just couldn't.

"It was frustrating because I couldn't speak, but because I couldn't move my arms or hands, I wasn't able to write anything down that I wanted to say either.

"I had to learn to feed myself, brush my teeth, all the things you learn as a toddler, it's like learning everything all over again."

She managed to start walking again at the beginning of this month and is about to be allowed to leave hospital and return home.

Her son, three-year-old William, held her hand as she got used to walking again along the hospital corridor.

Her partner did not want to name their baby until Ward came out of her coma, referring to the child as “baby girl” in the meantime.

He has kept a scrapbook of the things the children have done while their mother has been in hospital.

After her initial treatment at the Royal Bolton, Ward was sent to Wythenshawe Hospital, where she spent 35 days of her coma on an ECMO machine – the highest level of life support — and with her “lungs absolutely gone”, her family were told it was “the last resort”.

After five weeks at Wythenshawe, Ward returned to Bolton's intensive care unit where she eventually came out of her coma.

She was later transferred to Trafford General, where she's been rehabilitating with intense physiotherapy and occupational therapy - with the goal of returning home for Christmas.

"I'm getting stronger every day and the nurse has said she hasn't seen anyone make as much progress in such a short amount of time,” said Ward.

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"I think it's helped to have that goal of getting home for Christmas and also to get home to my kids. I've missed them all so much."

Ward didn't have the coronavirus vaccination earlier in her pregnancy, as initially it wasn't recommended for pregnant women.

She said she would recommend the vaccine to pregnant women.

"I'd say just get it," she said. "I wouldn't wish what's happened to me on anyone and it's better to be safe than sorry."

Watch: Boris Johnson declines to rule out extra COVID restrictions before Christmas