A new mom shared that she "died" for four minutes after giving birth to her twins, leading to her missing the first month of their lives.
Aaliyah Walker (@authentically.aaliyah), 26, had an uneventful pregnancy, other than a severe hive breakout at the start. Towards the end, she developed cholestasis, a liver condition that slows or stops the normal flow of bile, causing a buildup of bile acids in the blood. It can lead to severe itching and pose risks to the baby.
"Other than these two things, my pregnancy went well. I felt great, everything was amazing," Walker told Newsweek.
A maternal-fetal medicine (MFM) appointment at Sibley Memorial Hospital revealed some issues.
Baby A had a fetal arrhythmia, and Baby B had severe growth restriction and oligohydramnios (low amniotic fluid). Doctors decided to proceed with a C-section on September 20 at 35 weeks and 6 days at Sibley Memorial Hospital in Washington, D.C.
"Aaliyah was then prepped for her C-section while I waited outside the room and put on scrubs," her husband, Brady Arnold, 26, told Newsweek. "Once she was ready, they called me in, and the surgery began. It was going routine—both babies were delivered healthy and successfully. Aaliyah commented on how beautiful and tiny they were."
After the delivery, doctors began a salpingectomy to remove Walker's fallopian tubes, as she had decided not to have more children. During the procedure, Walker's condition took a sudden turn.
"During this process, she looked at me and said, 'I can't breathe.' Her blood pressure and heart rate began to drop. I was then asked to leave the room. Aaliyah's pulse was lost, and a code blue was called," Arnold said.
Walker had gone into cardiac arrest and was without a pulse for four minutes. Medics performed one round of epinephrine (EPI), a medication used to stimulate the heart during emergencies, and chest compressions, successfully reviving her. She was transferred to Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore for 24 days while the babies were in D.C.
"How many aura points do I lose for dying during delivery of my twins and missing the first month of their life?" the mom wrote as the text overlaid on the video of her pre-birth, which garnered 641,200 likes and 4.6 million views on TikTok.
While intubated, doctors discovered multiple blood clots in her pulmonary artery and a clot in transit within her heart. They considered placing Walker on ECMO, a life-support system that oxygenates the blood outside the body to give the heart and lungs time to heal, and performing open-heart surgery.
However, her age and overall health led them to reserve this option as a last resort.
Instead, doctors treated Walker with a heparin drip, an anticoagulant that prevents clots from forming or growing. Thankfully, the treatment reduced the clot in her heart by 50 percent.
"During the ICU stay, I developed multiple hematomas that needed to be removed. I was oozing blood from my C-section site, so they reopened me, removed the hematomas, and attached a wound vac, which required dressing changes three times a week," Walker explained.
Balancing treatment for her blood clots and hemorrhaging proved to be a delicate process. She received over 12 blood transfusions during her 24-day hospital stay. After nine days in the ICU, Walker was moved to a regular hospital floor for further monitoring.
By December 20, Walker had her inferior vena cava (IVC) filter removed—a device used to prevent blood clots from traveling to the lungs—and continued recovery with a wound vac to close her C-section incision.
She's now doing well and awaiting a January 8 hematology appointment to determine whether she has antiphospholipid syndrome, a disorder in which the immune system attacks normal proteins in the blood, increasing the risk of clotting.
"I missed the first month of their lives because I was ill/being treated, and they were in a separate hospital," the mom shared.
Social media users shared heartfelt sympathies and similar childbirth stories in the comments of her TikTok post.
"My mom was found dead at 34 weeks by my dad. My heart was still beating. She was in a coma for about a month after, and she just turned 51 this week. Moms go through so much to have babies," wrote Tania.
"So glad you're okay, mumma. It's very scary. I know it's not the same, but I nearly died three weeks after giving birth with pulmonary embolism and SMV thrombosis, which is basically clots," Stephanie shared.
"You got promoted to superwoman, my dear," said Leanne Roberts.
"Childbirth is so scary! I'm glad you made it," another user added.
"Thank you Jesus, for keeping you! You and the babies are whole miracles, friend," said another viewer.
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