'I am lucky to be alive' - Hartlepool mum who gave birth in a coma while fighting covid returns home

Carrie-Anne Osborne, 32, didn’t meet her baby girl until five weeks after she was born via caesarean as she fought for her own life in a coma.

The Hartlepool mum-of-four was self-isolating at home after testing positive for Covid-19 on December 29 and was taken to the University Hospital of North Tees, in Stockton, in the early hours of January 6 after her condition deteriorated.

Doctors put Carrie-Anne into a coma and delivered her baby at just 33 weeks the same day.

Unable to see Carrie-Anne in hospital, her worried family had to rely on daily phone calls with medical staff to find out her condition.

Sister Leanne Osborne said: “She was really poorly – it was touch and go.

"We thought she wasn’t going to survive and we were told to expect the worst.”

Carrie-Anne spent more than four weeks in a coma as she battled Covid-19 pneumonia which caused her left lung to collapse.

But the brave mum proved herself to be a fighter and was able to fully come round from the coma on February 7.

It was only then that she realised she had given birth to her daughter, Storm Osborne-Duncan, who weighed just 3lb 10oz.

Baby Storm spent four weeks in hospital until her dad, Lewis, brought her home on January 28.

On February 18, five weeks after she was born, Carrie-Anne met her baby for the first time, calling the experience “surreal”.

On surviving her ordeal, Carrie-Anne, who is also mum to Poppy, seven, Willow, three, and Sky, one, added: “There’s no better feeling.

"I feel on top of the world.”

After leaving the Covid ward, Carrie-Anne was moved to Westview Lodge care home for a fortnight before returning home on March 10.

But she remains very weak and still struggles with her mobility and breathing.

"I still can’t walk. I am breathless all of the time,” she said.

"When I was in Westview Lodge I was told a bit more [about what happened to me] and it’s made me realise how lucky I am to be alive.

“The staff there were absolutely fantastic. The NHS intensive care staff were also brilliant.

"I am so pleased to be home.”

A fundraiser to support Carrie-Anne and her children through the ordeal has raised more than £1,000.

To donate visit: https://www.gofundme.com/f/every-little-helps-for-carrieanne-her-family-x

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