Pandemic mothers reflect on trials and victories, years later

The whole world suffered from the Covid-19 pandemic, and many lost loved ones due to the virus. In Korea so far, over 34,000 people have lost their lives due to the pandemic. Some people even went through childbirth despite being on the verge of ...

Kim Mi-na, left, and her daughter Joo-e. Kim gave birth to Joo-e after falling unconscious for 22 days with Covid-19. [KIM MI-NA]

The whole world suffered from the Covid-19 pandemic, and many lost loved ones due to the virus.

In Korea so far, over 34,000 people have lost their lives due to the pandemic.

Some people even went through childbirth despite being on the verge of death due to the virus.

“Thank you for growing up so healthy,” Kim Mi-na, a 40-year-old woman living in Jung District, Incheon, said to her 19-month-old baby, Joo-e.

Kim was tested positive for Covid-19 in June 2021 while she was seven months pregnant.

She had to be hospitalized for almost two months at Seoul National University Hospital only about a week after coming down with the virus due to worsening pneumonia.

Her symptoms were so severe that she immediately had to be put on a ventilator. She then lost consciousness.

She had to go through prone position therapy three times, in which she had to lie down in the prone position for almost 16 hours so that her lungs could have the least amount of pressure on them. Just two weeks later, she had to be supported with an extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) machine as her symptoms got worse.

ECMO is a life support machine that is used during the final stages for the sickest patients and provides respiratory support for those whose lungs cannot function alone.

Kim was the first pregnant Covid-19 patient to need such treatment in Korea.

Doctors had warned her husband “to prepare for the worst case scenario.” Miraculously, she woke up after 17 days of barely surviving even with the support of the machine.

Kim says now she does not even have any lingering symptoms of long Covid-19.

Kim Mi-na and medical staff take a photo at Seoul National University Hospital after Kim was taken off of the ventilator she was connected to for Covid-19 treatment. [KIM MI-NA]

She finally got off the ventilator on July 26 and was discharged from the hospital three days later. On Sept. 17, she gave birth to her daughter.

Kim recalls having had severe Covid-19 symptoms while she was hospitalized. She could not move her body nor raise her arms.

But, she said, she had promised herself that she would overcome the disease and walk out of the hospital.

“I finished my meal every time, believing the baby would grow healthy if I eat well,” Kim said.

“I kept on telling myself to forget about the past and think about the future.”

Kim and her daughter both got Covid-19 in April last year but did not suffer from any major symptoms.

Kim also shared that she had learned and grown from her lethal experience.

“You never know when you will die. I am trying to focus on my present life,” Kim said, adding that she became a stronger person mentally as she does not get easily affected even when her baby catches a cold or when her family faces financial difficulties.

“I am happy enough to see my child smiling at me and growing up healthily.”

Kim gave birth to Joo-e and her eldest son Joo-won through in vitro fertilization, after five years of failing to conceive.

“It’s just a miracle to see Joo-e staying next to me,” she said.

Kim, who has a master’s degree in education, shared that her dream is to help children suffering from psychiatric disorders such as ADHD, when after Joo-won and Joo-e get a bit older.

Thirty-three-year-old Kim Cho-hye is another mother who gave birth to a baby boy after being confirmed with Covid-19.

“The Hongseong Medical Center in South Chungcheong made a temporary delivery room and a separate ward just for me and my baby to quarantine in,” Kim said, reminiscing about the urgent moment when she was refused to give birth at a hospital in Gyeonggi after she had tested positive for Covid-19.

“Medical staff who had already left work quickly came back to the hospital.”

Kim had to give birth to her son Do-geon at a hospital about 130 kilometers (80 miles) away from her home in Gwangmyeong, Gyeonggi. She was first confirmed positive for Covid-19 after being tested for the virus at a hospital she went to for false labor pains. She said she had no idea that she had the virus, as she did not have any symptoms.

When the first hospital refused to take Kim, a public health center helped her to look for a hospital anywhere in Seoul or Gyeonggi that would accept her, but there was none.

She hopped on an ambulance as her labor contractions intensified.

Paramedics made calls for about six hours, to hospitals in South and North Chungcheong, Gyeongsang and even Jeju. But they all refused.

“I thought about just giving birth at home after I got rejected from a hospital even in Jeju,” Kim said.

It was almost 6 p.m., about 12 hours after she started to have contractions, when Hongseong Medical Center in South Chungcheong told her to come.

Kim said she had initially planned for a natural delivery but had to give birth via cesarean section as doctors told her that her respiratory droplets could infect the baby with the virus.

Kim Cho-hye's son Do-geon after he was born on March 9, 2022 [KIM CHO-HYE]

Her recovery was slow after giving birth due to later symptoms of Covid-19.

But she recalled the experience as a thankful moment, more than a painful one, listing out the names of those who helped her, including the doctors, paramedics and workers at the community health center.

“I want to pay them back by raising my son well,” she said.

Kim Cho-hye's son Do-geon. Kim gave birth to her son at a hospital about 130 kilometers (80 miles) away from her house because others refused to accept her as she had tested positive for Covid-19. [KIM CHO-HYE]

BY SHIN SUNG-SIK, KIM NA-HAN [cho.jungwoo1@joongang.co.kr]