{"id":241292,"date":"2021-03-12T11:42:33","date_gmt":"2021-03-12T17:42:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=241292"},"modified":"2021-03-11T20:36:51","modified_gmt":"2021-03-12T02:36:51","slug":"heart-failure-17-weeks-doctors-save-both","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/heart-failure-17-weeks-doctors-save-both\/","title":{"rendered":"After mom experiences heart failure at 17 weeks pregnant, doctors save both lives"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>

A mother survived the impossible after experiencing heart failure at 17 weeks pregnant. Last September, Maria Vang began having troubling sleeping and breathing. Vang, from Sacramento, was given medication after being diagnosed with myocarditis, but she only got worse \u2014 yet doctors were able to save both Vang and her baby<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Dr. Richard Ha, chief of cardiac surgery for Kaiser Permanente Santa Clara, told NBC Bay Area<\/a> that Vang was seriously ill. “She came from our Kaiser Sacramento program. She was brought here because she was in acute heart failure. Her heart was functioning at about 20%. Normally, people function at 65%,” he explained. “We got a call that she was doing poorly. Then she started coding. Her heart kind of gave out on her.”<\/p>\n

For Vang’s husband, Sulei Yang, the prospect of losing both his wife and his child was terrifying. “Right in front of death’s face,” he recalled. “My mind went blank for quite some time. I had to, like, come to my sense and know what’s happening. It was scary. It made you think about life twice.”<\/p>\n