A pregnant woman posted a viral cry for help on Facebook Live from her hospital bed. She accused her doctors, who were treating her for COVID-related pneumonia, of trying to save her unborn baby while letting her die. There’s been a happy update in the case since the disturbing video was posted.
Pregnant Woman Lobs Disturbing Allegations
Cecilia Vega-Britez, a 36 year old from New York City, was six-and-a-half months pregnant with her fifth child when she was hospitalized with symptoms of COVID-19. She became concerned after she didn’t receive a second dose of the antiviral drug Remdesivir and consequently began filming herself for Facebook Live.
She claimed she had been left untreated for 26 hours despite supposedly being on a treatment plan that called for a dose of Remdesivir every 24 hours. “I am very scared for my life,” she said through her oxygen mask. The day before she began filming the video, Vega-Britez had been moved to the labor and delivery unit, which she took as her doctors’ being more concerned with the health of her baby than with her.
“They’re getting the baby ready and they’re not treating my pneumonia,” she said in the video, later adding, “I’m making the video as evidence that I’m afraid for my life that they’re going to come and say we have to take your baby and put you on a ventilator.” Despite her intense worries for her life, the story has a happy ending.
How The Situation Ultimately Played Out
Vega-Britez’s condition began to improve soon after the video and an emergency c-section was unnecessary. It wasn’t just Vega-Britez’s health that got better. Communication with her doctors swiftly improved following the Facebook Live video. “Whatever happened in the hospital, they ended up saving my life,” she explained to WPIX when they visited her home after she was released from the hospital.
Vega-Britez, who’d declined to get vaccinated during the earlier portion of her pregnancy out of fear that it would affect her baby, has had a change of heart after her hospital stay. “If you end up in the hospital, it’s not going to be pretty,” Vega-Britez said. “If you can, get the vaccine.”
While she was worried about how the vaccine could affect her unborn baby, she now acknowledges, “I ended up getting so many other chemicals into my body, and into my baby,” during her hospital stay. Her hesitancy to get a vaccine led to an incredibly deadly situation, especially since pregnant women are more susceptible to respiratory illnesses, according to Dr. Laila Woc-Colburn of Emory University.
Dr. Anate Brauer, a specialist with Shady Grove Fertility in Manhattan, pointed to a recent study of over 30,000 pregnant women who’d seen no change after taking the vaccine. It’s much safer at this point to go with the well researched vaccine rather than taking chances at the hospital.