Kara Giammarino

My name is Kara Giammarino and I lost my baby girl Ella to Vasa Previa (VCI) on Friday, August 29th, 2003. I had a pretty uneventful pregnancy and felt great. I was diagnosed with Low Lying Placenta at 18 weeks and was told by both the doctor and u/s technician that this was fairly common and that most likely the placenta would move. I was never told of any risks associated with Low Lying Placenta other than “you probably shouldn’t lift more than 30 pounds just in case.” I had another u/s at 30 weeks that determined the placenta had moved and I was now, “fine” and had nothing to worry about except that the baby was breech. My 3rd u/s was at 37 weeks and showed that my baby had moved and was no longer breech. I was so happy that I didn’t have to have a C-section and could deliver vaginally like I did with my first child!! I actually had my family praying that she would turn for me!!! I had my 4th ultrasound at 41 weeks due to low activity and another one (# 5) three days later (the morning of Ella’s birth) due to low activity. Both times I was told that everything looked fine!

I was scheduled to be induced the morning of August 29th (I was 41 weeks) but went into labor on my own August 28th. I didn’t want to be induced (I wanted to go as “naturally” as I could) and had asked the doctors if I can wait until that Friday. Little did I know, that being induced may have saved my daughter. My daughter was also breech until 37 weeks. If she had stayed breech, I would have had a scheduled C-section and she would most likely be with us today.

I went into labor at around 6 PM on Thursday, August 28th. I was already 3-4 centimeters dilated at my morning doctor appointment so my labor came on strong and fast. I had been in labor for 16 hours with my first child Jakob so I figured that I had a little time so I made dinner, took a shower, and then called my mother to come. The contractions started coming very close and hard. When my mother got to my house we went to the hospital and I told my husband that I thought I was going to have the baby in our truck. I was ready to push. When we got to the hospital I was already 9 centimeters and my OBGYN broke my water. She didn’t indicate that anything was wrong and I pushed my daughter Ella out in about 10 minutes. It was a dream labor (3 ½ hours) and delivery. We were so elated when the OBGYN said that it was a girl. How perfect – we now had a little boy and a little girl. Then our worst nightmare began. Ella wasn’t crying and looked very pale. The OBGYN said that she was a little pale but would be fine. The nurses took her and while the OBGYN was working on me they told us that they needed to take Ella to the nursery. My husband knew right away that something was wrong.

Everything after that is still a blur. The pediatrician came in a while later and said that they weren’t sure what was wrong but they had paged the head of neonatology and that they would keep letting us know of her progress. The OBGYN came back and said that there was a significant amount of blood when I pushed out Ella but she thought (at the time) that maybe it was coming from me. She said that there wasn’t any blood loss when my water broke and the staff at the hospital wasn’t told about the significant blood loss when Ella came out until after the OBGYN was done working on me. The neonatologist came in a while later and told us that Ella was very anemic and that she needed a transfusion. She made it sound like Ella would be OK but they weren’t sure what happened. She told us that she would be transferred to another hospital. A while later the same neonatologist told my husband that it didn’t look like Ella was going to make it and that we should say goodbye.

We were in such shock. They told us that they weren’t able to get her levels up high enough for a transfusion (??) and that a transfusion wouldn’t help at this point. We were able to hold our daughter for a long time and tell her how much we loved her. I still remember exactly what she looked like and how helpless she was. My heart breaks for her everyday and I don’t know if I’ll ever understand how this healthy, beautiful little girl could be taken from us.

When the pathology report came back they determined it was due to VCI. My OBGYN would not call it Vasa previa and told us flat out that there was no way they could have found it. She also told me that she had a similar case 12 years ago and the baby died due to Vasa Previa!! You can imagine our anger at hearing that the practice doesn’t look for it when this tragedy already occurred there 12 years prior!!! It is still early in our grief but I live with the “what ifs” and guilt (of waiting to be induced) every day. The doctors never pushed me being induced they just suggested that I do it that week and I waited to Friday instead of doing it earlier in the week (hoping I would go on my own!).

I hope to be able to make a difference in Ella’s name and work with the wonderful women in this group that are trying to do the same. I still feel like I’m living someone else’s life but hope someday that the knowledge I will help to spread will save others from living this avoidable nightmare.

~Kara Giammarino and Ella