A dedicated husband and father who refused to turn his wife’s life support off when she was in a coma was overjoyed when she woke up two months later. Autumn Carver nearly didn’t make it, but thanks to husband Zach’s refusal to give up on her, she’s alive and healthy again.
- Autumn Carver got COVID-19 while pregnant. She’d chosen not to get the vaccine because she was pregnant at the time and was afraid of miscarrying since she’d done so three times previously. However, the coronavirus affected her badly and she ended up being hospitalized.
- She was placed on a ventilator and given an emergency C-section. Her son, Huxley, was born at just 33 weeks, and Autumn was soon put on life support. She needed an extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) machine, which is used to oxygenate red blood cells adn remove carbon dioxide.
- Zach Carver was told Autumn had “zero percent chance of survival.” He still remembers the day clearly and described it as the “worst day of my life” during an appearance on “Good Morning America.” Patients in her condition generally needed a lung transplant to have more than a 5% chance of survival, but Dr. Ankit Bharat, a specialist surgeon, thought she should try to recover naturally.
- Zach never gave up on his wife. He refused to turn off her life support or to believe that she might not make it. And roughly two months later, Autumn woke up. Not long after, she got to meet her baby boy for the first time and was released from the ICU. After some intensive physical, speech, and occupational therapy, she was released from the hospital and got to come home in time for Christmas in 2021.
- Doctors admit that Autumn Carver’s recovery was a “miracle.” She still had only 40% lung capacity when she left the hospital and suffered nerve damage in her leg. However, Dr. Bharat believes she’ll “lead a normal life” with her beautiful family.
