Diana Crouch was a healthy 28-year-old when she tested positive for COVID 19. She was also 18 weeks pregnant. 

"The first pregnancy, she had morning sickness for a long time. On our anniversary, she had a bit of a headache, and we didn't think anything of it," said her husband, Chris Crouch.

They returned home from their anniversary trip to Las Vegas, and Diana started to feel worse. She developed a fever and became fatigued. The symptoms continued to worsen, and a few days later she tested positive for COVID-19.

"Doctors told her to hydrate and to monitor her fever and to come back if things got worse," said Crouch.

A few days later she began to have issues breathing, and it was at this point that Chris drove her to the hospital where she was admitted.

"They found a hospital for us which was the Texas Children's Pavillion for Women in the Texas Medical Centre. She was there for four days on oxygen. She was battling trying to avoid the ventilator, then on August 10, they told us she was getting worse and would have to go on the ventilator," said Chris.

Chris says doctors anticipated that Diana would be on the ventilator for just a couple of weeks, but that was not the case.

"She was on the ventilator for 17 days when they decided to put her on extracorporeal membrane oxygenation or ECMO," Chris explains. 

"The first couple of days, she did okay. She was on very minimal settings on the ECMO machine. And then her ECMO settings started to get worse, meaning she was almost on max settings for ECMO, which means her lungs weren't really doing anything at this point. The baby was still doing fine, but she was riding out this ECMO."

Due to complications from a tracheotomy, she was taken off blood thinners and eventually experienced three strokes, a heart attack and multiple seizures all in one day.

"There was a time where she was just kinda laying unresponsive. She had a pulse, but there was nothing else going on. That was like that for three days. At that point, I just prayed to God," said Chris.

"There was nothing more any doctor, or any of us couldn've done. She was on the last resort life support. Doctors were at the point where they just didn't know what to do because the ECMO circuit was causing these problems."

Chris started a bunch of prayer groups with family, friends, work colleagues and one of the main doctors in charge of Diana's care, Dr. Cameron.

"I told him, even though she's at her worst part, I sill feel like she is going to make it through," Chris explains. "I said if she makes it through, I am going to name my son after you."

A few days later, Diana woke up and began to slowly improve. On November 10, 2021, at just 31 weeks pregnant, doctors decided to deliver the baby via C-Section.

cameron

And just as promised, the Crouch's named their son Cameron, after the doctor who helped save Diana's life. 

In total, Diana spent over 139 days in the hospital. She was finally released on December 23, just in time for Christmas. 

"She's doing really well. She's at home with her children, which is what she wanted. We anticipate a full recovery. We'll be praying on it."

Today on Connections, Chris shares their family's miracle story.