I had the perfect pregnancy with my son Joshua. I didn't have morning sickness or any other symptoms. It was smooth sailing until 29 weeks of gestation. The week prior, I had my Obstetrician appointment and he took my blood pressure which was low as usual, took note of my weight gain which was a total of 10kg from the start of my pregnancy, and I told him about the swellings night leg cramps. All the above did not concern him, nor did it concern me. I had no other symptoms that would point to pre eclampsia at all. Unfortunately it was not routine to check for urine samples therefore the proteinuria would have gone undetected.

One morning on 29 weeks gestation, I went to work as usual. I got to work and felt a bit off then developed what I thought was a migraine aura. I had the usual flashing lights in my vision. I normally have migraines once or twice a year anyway so I just rested at my desk and it subsided. After that, I made myself some toast and a cup of tea, thinking all was well. After an hour or so, I felt off again, not quite sure how to describe it. But I just felt unwell. I went to the bathroom and had slight diarrhoea but did not feel nauseous. I went back to my desk and my colleagues encouraged me to call the Obstetrician. The lady at the reception told me I was most welcome to come to the rooms in about 30min or so, as the Obstetrician was in theatre at that very minute. It would've taken me at least 30min to get there anyway. I called my husband to pick me up from work. Shortly after, I started having lower pelvic cramps. It felt like severe period pain that just won't go away. But it was very low in my pelvis. My colleagues called the ambulance and they came at the same time as my husband. We went to the Emergency department and I was wheeled in to the maternity area of the hospital where my Obstetrician practices.

The period pain-like cramps continued throughout the journey. A nurse tried to take an ultrasound and was unsuccessful. My period pain-like cramps continues and I was not yet suspecting anything was wrong with my baby. Once the Obstetrician came and did his ultrasound, he confirmed there was no heartbeat to be found. He got his colleague to double check and I have indeed lost my Joshua. All in a matter of hours. My blood pressure reading was not alarmingly high during the ambulance ride, but by the time I got to the hospital apparently it was rising steadily and therefore the Obstetrician ordered Magnesium IV to prevent me from having seizures, prior to planning to induce me. I was warned that the Magnesium would make me flush and feel very hot, and it was indeed true. Within seconds I was flushed and also very nauseous. I remembered asking the nurse for some anti nauseant.

From there onwards, my personal recollection of what happened is a bit blurry as suddenly everyone rushed and all I remember was being in theatre and being put to sleep. Apparently my blood pressure crashed suddenly and it was deemed urgent to deliver my son via emergency c-section and stabilise me. I ended up in ICU for several days, after losing my son Joshua and literally knocking on death's door myself. I was told that I had a severe fulminating pre-eclampsia which was not preventable as the week prior I was perfectly fine and everything just happened that morning. I also read my discharge notes and it also said I had HELLP syndrome, very high proteinuria, severe placental abruption and Couvelaire uterus, which caused the internal bleeding. In theatre, apparently I lost a lot of blood and ended up in DIC (disseminated intravascular coagulation) where my body simply ran out of clotting factors and I kept bleeding and bleeding. They had to pump me with so much blood products and clotting factors to stabilise me and stitch me back up. I was told it was not preventable and there was nothing I could've done because I had no prior symptoms that were remotely alarming. I lost my dear son Joshua to this scary disease...