AUSTIN (KXAN) — A Central Texas woman is sharing her story after her heart stopped during a cesarean delivery at a north Austin hospital back in December 2022.
Kimberly Afflerbach, 33, said she went to St. David’s Women’s Center of Austin on Dec. 19 for her planned C-section to have her twin boys. But during the procedure, she said she experienced placenta accreta, which is a serious pregnancy condition that happens when the placenta grows too deep into the uterine wall.
During a live interview with KXAN’s Jennifer Sanders, Afflerbach said the C-section went great, but then she started feeling lightheaded. She said as the C-Section wrapped up, her uterus had to be removed after her placenta wouldn’t deliver.
Doctors had to remove Afflerbach’s uterus, and after that, blood clots traveled to her lungs, which caused pulmonary embolism and stopped her heart, she said.
“My heart stopped for about 12 minutes during the delivery of the twins,” Afflerbach said.
Dr. Jerry Gilbert, a cardiologist at the hospital, said he heard a code blue from labor and delivery after Afflerbach’s heart stopped and said he ran to where she was.
After Afflerbach was stabilized, she went through a healing process for at least two weeks in the ICU, she said. She said she had multiple procedures through those two weeks to ensure she didn’t have any more blood clots.
“I had to get 19 blood transfusions over the time I was there as well,” she said.
Then, the third week was about rehabilitation, doing a lot of physical therapy, occupational therapy, and most importantly– getting to know her twins.
“I missed the first two weeks of their life,” Afflerbach said. “So getting to know them and do all those kinds of first moments together.”
Gilbert said Afflerbach’s ability to regularly exercise and maintain a healthy diet helped to save her life.
She said she decided to do a blood drive and collaborate with We Are Blood as a way to raise awareness to donate blood. We Are Blood is a donation center where people can go and donate blood.
“We told everybody we know–friends, family, neighbors–to please go donate because I had 19 people over the holidays that donated blood that saved my life. And without them, I wouldn’t be here,” Afflerbach said.