{"id":16277,"date":"2018-06-06T10:08:26","date_gmt":"2018-06-06T16:08:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uchealth.org\/today\/?p=16277"},"modified":"2021-03-17T16:04:10","modified_gmt":"2021-03-17T22:04:10","slug":"three-moms-pay-forward-the-gift-of-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uchealth.org\/today\/three-moms-pay-forward-the-gift-of-life\/","title":{"rendered":"Three moms pay forward the gift of life"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>

It is a rare but serious pregnancy complication \u2014 one that could have easily taken the lives of three northern Colorado women.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was close to not making it,\u201d said Christine Heim, who three years ago delivered a healthy baby girl but then started hemorrhaging. \u201cIt\u2019s really opened my eyes to the significance of donating blood.\u201d<\/p>\n

Heim joined Kate McMeekin and Tonya Trostel to host a blood drive at UCHealth Medical Center of the Rockies in Loveland on June 22, 2018. They’ll host another on Sept. 20, 2019. They are connected as survivors, and they met via an international Facebook support group: Hope for Accreta.<\/p>\n

\u201cAccreta is rare enough that many don\u2019t know or have never heard the term, but those who have will never forget it,\u201d McMeekin said. \u201cWe hope to bring about awareness as well as give back for all that was done to keep us here with our families. The amazing teams that were with each of us during our delivery and the days to follow are truly heroes.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/span>Sign up to donate for the Colorado Accreta Survivor blood drive or to donate blood when it works for your schedule.<\/div>
Tonya and members of the “Hope for Accreta\u201d Facebook group from northern Colorado are hosting another blood drive from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Sept. 20, 2019 at the Garth Englund Blood Donation Center at UCHealth Medical Center of the Rockies. Sign up for a donation spot here<\/a>. Can you donate blood? Learn more…<\/a><\/div><\/div> <\/div>\n

Placenta accreta<\/strong><\/h3>\n

In pregnancy, the placenta is an organ that develops inside the uterus and provides oxygen and nutrition to the baby, while also removing wastes. It connects to the baby through the umbilical cord, and after the delivery of a baby, a woman\u2019s uterus contracts to deliver the placenta. A retained placenta can cause serious bleeding and infection.<\/p>\n

Placenta accrete is the general term used to describe placenta accreta, increta and percreta \u2014 terms that more specifically indicate how much the placenta has penetrated surrounding areas.<\/div><\/h5>\n

Placenta accreta is a complication that occurs when part of the placenta, or the entire placenta, invades and is inseparable from the uterine wall, therefore preventing it from being delivered.<\/p>\n

McMeekin refers to the day she survived accreta as her \u201csurvivor anniversary.\u201d She will soon celebrate her second anniversary, and Heim just celebrated her third. The day of the blood drive will be Trostel\u2019s one-year anniversary.<\/p>\n

\"mom
Christine Heim and her daughter.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Christine Heim<\/strong><\/h3>\n
\"mom
Christine Heim with her daughter.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Heim, at only 12 weeks into her pregnancy in 2013, found out her baby had stopped growing and died five weeks before. Because her body had not naturally miscarried in that timeframe, she opted to use medication to shed the tissue rather than undergoing a dilation and curettage (D&C), when the cervix is dilated and a special instrument is used to scrape the uterine lining. However, a few weeks later, despite the medication, Heim started bleeding and rushed to the emergency room, where she had a D&C.<\/p>\n

In April 2014, Heim got pregnant again. Because of the earlier miscarriage, doctors monitored her more often. At eight weeks, she noticed she was bleeding, but doctors told her it was a subchorionic hemorrhage \u2014 a common and generally benign condition \u2014 and would subside on its own. It did, and she had no issues for the remainder of her pregnancy, she said.<\/p>\n

Pre-existing damage increases risk for accreta<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Typically, when the placenta implants itself and causes accreta, it attaches to pre-existing damage within the uterus, such as scar tissue from a C-section. But any time there is uterine manipulation, such as a D&C, a woman\u2019s risk for accreta increases, according to Dr. Saketh Guntupalli,<\/a> an OB-GYN with UCHealth University of Colorado Hospital in Aurora.<\/p>\n

On Jan. 5, 2015 \u2014 41 weeks and three days into her pregnancy \u2014 Heim was induced, and she delivered her healthy girl in the early hours of Jan. 6 at UCHealth Poudre Valley Hospital in Fort Collins. But when it came time to deliver the placenta, Heim started experiencing extreme pain.<\/p>\n

\"mom
Christine Heim holds her daughter after doctors saved her life from placenta accreta.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThe pain was worse than when I delivered the baby,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Heim was experiencing accreta. And because of the placenta\u2019s attachment, the uterus became inverted as it tried to deliver the tissue, and Heim started hemorrhaging.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t know what was going on, but a lot of doctors and nurses rushed into the room and took my daughter,\u201d she said. \u201cThey ran me to the operating room, and then I woke up about five hours later in the intensive care unit.\u201d<\/p>\n

After repositioning her uterus, doctors performed a D&C and used a balloon, which is inflated inside the uterine cavity, to help stop the bleeding. She did not have to have a hysterectomy but did require eight units of blood.<\/p>\n

\n
For a woman who\u2019s had one prior C-section and also has placenta previa, her chance of developing accreta is 3 percent. That increases to 11 percent if she\u2019s had two C-sections, 40 percent after a third C-section, 61 percent after a fourth C-section, and 67 percent for more than five C-sections, according to uptodate.com<\/h5>\n
Without placenta previa, the risk for accreta drops to 0.03 percent after the first C-section, 0.2 percent after the second, 0.1 percent after the third, and 0.8 percent after the fourth or fifth.<\/h5>\n<\/div>\n

Placenta previa also increases risk for accreta<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Although it is difficult to diagnosis placenta accreta during pregnancy, placenta previa is usually identified early. Placenta previa occurs when the placental tissue extends over the cervix, and it too can cause complications at delivery. Its presence also increases the chances that a woman will have accreta, according to Dr. Alison Cowan, an OB-GYN with UCHealth Women\u2019s Care Clinic in Loveland and Greeley.<\/p>\n

However, about 90 percent of placenta previas found during routine ultrasound exams resolve before delivery, so Cowan stressed the fact that counseling a woman on her risk of accreta varies widely and is dependent on the specific circumstances of that pregnancy.<\/p>\n

\"mom
Kati McMeekin and her son.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Kate McMeekin<\/strong><\/h3>\n
\"mom
Kate McMeekin holds her son, who was born via C-section at 35 weeks because McMeekin was diagnosed with placenta accreta.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

At 12 weeks gestation, McMeekin was diagnosed with placenta previa. She had a C-section with her first child, at 29 weeks gestation. These two preconditions greatly increased her risk of accreta.<\/p>\n

When the previa she experienced did not resolve by 28 weeks, an MRI confirmed accreta at 32 weeks and doctors began planning for an early delivery \u2014 35 weeks via C-section \u2014 followed by a hysterectomy.<\/p>\n

McMeekin, who, as a nurse at UCHealth Medical Center of the Rockies, understood the potential for a bad outcome, struggled with learning the fate of her second delivery.<\/p>\n

\"Kate
Kate McMeekin with her family.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cMost nights leading up to the scheduled surgery I couldn\u2019t sleep,\u201d she said. \u201cI have a 9-year-old son, and this is my first child with my husband. The thought of leaving them \u2014 those thoughts lingered.\u201d<\/p>\n

The option: hysterectomy<\/strong><\/h3>\n

A cesarean hysterectomy is the only treatment path for accreta, according to Guntupalli. Although mortality rates are low, especially when accreta is diagnosed early, it is a very serious diagnosis, he said.<\/p>\n

Guntupalli heads PART \u2014 Placenta Accreta Response Team \u2014 at UCH. It\u2019s a team of highly trained gynecologic oncology physicians, maternal-fetal medicine practitioners, neonatologists and obstetric anesthesiologists who work together with other subspecialists from urology, interventional radiology and vascular surgery, as well as a support team of nurses and technicians in the blood bank, in an effort to reduce mortality and morbidity associated with this pregnancy complication.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe mortality rate is low \u2014 even in the worst situations we can save a woman\u2019s life,\u201d Guntupalli said. \u201cBut accreta is certainly the most high-risk thing that can happen to a woman in pregnancy, and morbidity is upward of 5 to 10 percent because of blood loss, transfusion issues, the high risk of infections, lung injury \u2026 It\u2019s a very serious diagnosis and a rare disease process that needs specific expertise to make sure the mom can have a good quality of life afterward.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"mom
Tonya Trostel and her three daughters.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Tonya Trostel<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Trostel and her husband were celebrating five years of marriage and two healthy daughters when she became pregnant with her third child.<\/p>\n

\"mom
Tonya Trostel with her family.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Just a few days short of 40 weeks into her healthy pregnancy, she went into labor and arrived at UCHealth Medical Center of the Rockies. Trostel had had a C-section with her first child, but had a successful vaginal birth after cesarean, or VBAC, with her second, and her third also would be a VBAC.<\/p>\n

After an all-natural, no-drugs delivery, her baby girl was placed on her chest for some bonding time while her body was left to finish delivering the placenta. But after an hour had passed with doctors working to deliver the placenta \u2014and more pain than Trostel had ever experienced with childbirth \u2014 she was told that they\u2019d need to perform a D&C. She remembers nothing else until she woke up in the ICU seven hours later in a panic and unable to speak because of the tubes down her throat.<\/p>\n

She wrote down her question on paper for her husband: Did I have a hysterectomy?<\/p>\n

\u201cHe said, \u2018yes,\u2019 and I just started bawling,\u201d Trostel said.<\/p>\n

During the D&C, Trostel had started hemorrhaging.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey tried several ways to stop the bleeding and nothing was working,\u201d she said. \u201cIn order to save my life, they had to get the uterus out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trostel required 11 units of blood. The average human body contains about 11 units of blood.<\/p>\n

\"mom
Tonya Trostel holds her newborn and takes a picture with her family prior to doctors realizing she had placenta accreta.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A random connection; lasting support<\/strong><\/h3>\n

When Trostel started hemorrhaging, a \u201cmass transfusion\u201d page came through the department McMeekin works in at MCR, and she saw her coworkers hustling to the call.<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember the anesthesiologist dropping everything and running to the labor and delivery unit. I had heard there was a new mom bleeding and my heart sunk,\u201d she said. \u201cAccreta takes the lives of new moms all too frequently. Prior to my own delivery, I lost many nights of sleep because I was up worrying, crying, afraid that my husband and my boys would lose me. So, when I heard a mom was bleeding, I immediately sat down in my chair and prayed for her. I knew in my heart it was accreta.\u201d<\/p>\n

A few months later, McMeekin connected with Trostel on the Facebook support page and later met the mother she had prayed for. As with Heim, McMeekin was grateful to be able to discuss her accreta experience with a fellow survivor.<\/p>\n

A Colorado-specific Accreta group called \u201cColorado Accreta Survivors\u201d has been created on Facebook, according to Kate McMeekin. And survivors from all over Colorado joined these three mothers in support during the blood drive. As a group, they hope to have a blood drive in each of the hospital where a member has delivered, continue to bring about awareness, and be there to support other women as they go through the process. Another blood drive is scheduled Sept. 20, 2019.<\/div><\/h5>\n

\u201cSupport is very important as this is a very major surgery and women can feel a sense of loss after,\u201d Guntupalli said. \u201cMany times right after, the mom is happy to be alive and there for her new baby, but as time passes, the realization that she will no longer be able to have more children sets in.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trostel describes this feeling.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose first few months were horrible \u2026 mentally, emotionally and physically hard. I don\u2019t know how to explain it to people who haven\u2019t experienced it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

For Heim, it was about a year after her daughter\u2019s birth that the realization hit her.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was then that it hit me how serious it all was,\u201d she said. \u201cThen I met Kate, and we bonded over it. When we realized there were three of us here in northern Colorado, we wanted to do something for other mothers. We wanted to give back the blood that we all had needed.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

Having an adequate supply of blood on hand in the case of an accreta delivery is vital for the health of the mother, said Dr. Saketh Guntupalli, an OB-Gyn with UCHealth University of Colorado Hospital in Aurora.<\/p>\n

The UCHealth Garth Englund Blood Donation Center supplies blood not only for accreta patients but for all patients at UCHealth\u2019s Poudre Valley Hospital, Medical Center of the Rockies and Estes Park Medical Center.<\/p>\n

But in the summer, demand for blood increases while donations decrease because people are busy with vacation and travel. That makes the need to donate in the summertime even more important. Find a local drive near you this summer, host your own drive, or drop into one of the center\u2019s locations in Fort Collins or Loveland to give the gift of life.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It is a rare but serious pregnancy complication \u2014 one that could have easily taken the lives of three northern Colorado women. \u201cI was close to not making it,\u201d said Christine Heim, who three years ago delivered a healthy baby girl but then started hemorrhaging. \u201cIt\u2019s really opened my eyes to the significance of donating […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2164,"featured_media":16290,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[146,147,3305,895,4001,25,212],"class_list":["post-16277","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-blood-donation","tag-blood-drive","tag-donating-blood","tag-garth-englund-blood-donation-center","tag-high-risk-pregnancy","tag-labor-delivery","tag-womens-care"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nMoms pay forward life after surviving placenta accreta - 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