Highland Park mom recalls frightening experience of having COVID while pregnant
Cindy Marquez said she ended up in the emergency room twice when her COVID-19 symptoms got worse while she was pregnant.
HIGHLAND PARK, LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- 39-year-old Cindy Marquez had normal pregnancies with her three oldest children. But Marquez said her fourth pregnancy took a turn when she started feeling pain in her lungs and abdomen when she was 26 weeks pregnant.
Marquez ended up in the emergency room and was tested for COVID-19.
The result came back positive and she faced a frightening reality.
"I didn't want to die. That was one thing was myself, but being the fact that I was pregnant I feared the loss of my baby and or bringing a baby into the world and not me being here. So I was really scared. It freaked me out," Marquez said.
The Highland Park resident said there wasn't much doctors could do to treat her because she was pregnant. Within a few hours, Marquez was discharged from the hospital and went home to quarantine.
"I was sick for six weeks, fever, chills, shortness of breath, no appetite, no taste. It was just, it was scary," said Marquez.
The mother-to-be said her symptoms got worse and she ended up in the emergency room a second time. Marquez was now also suffering from low blood sugar, a kidney infection, and dehydration on top of her coronavirus symptoms.
"This time, they did a little bit more they put me on I.V. they gave me fluids," said Marquez. "It's the unknown. Pretty much they told me that they didn't know what was going to be a long term effect on the baby and me."
Thirty-eight weeks into her pregnancy, Marquez got another test and this time, the result was negative.
Two days later, she went into labor and gave birth to a baby girl they named Elaina Rose.
"They did test her when she was born. She didn't test positive ... She was born a healthy nine-pound baby," said Marquez. "She had some respiratory problems her first five days of life. Again, they can't with 100% certainty tell me that it had anything to do with my COVID. But if you ask me, in a mother's intuition, I do feel like there is no other explanation other than that."
Even though doctors can't tell Marquez if her baby will have any lingering effects from her COVID infection, Marquez said she's grateful both she and her baby are healthy.
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