Mother Separated From Newborn, Fights Off COVID-19 In The ICU

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – A mother still has not held her newborn son after two weeks of fighting off COVID-19 in the intensive care unit at the University of Utah.

“I basically got pulled away from my life,” said Lolo Ahsan. “I never want to take anything for granted after this COVID.”

If you visit the Ahsan home, it doesn’t take long to realize that family and God matter most. And never have they meant more to Ahsan than over the last two weeks.

Two weeks ago Lolo gave birth to a beautiful baby boy. Since then, this has been her only interaction with him. She talked to us about her time in the icu with covid. Her story on @KSL5TV at 10 pic.twitter.com/gHhJMOr0vA

— Matt Rascon KSL (@MattRasconKSL) November 7, 2020

“I felt that weakness. I felt that pain. Physically and mentally. I felt it all,” she said.

At 37 weeks pregnant, Ahsan went to an urgent care with symptoms of the virus. She expected to return home soon after. But instead, she was sent to the emergency room, and then University of Utah Hospital.

Three days later, Ahsan’s symptoms were getting worse as she gave birth to a baby boy.

“I was so sick. But I remember them putting him on my chest and taking him away,” she recalled.

For the next two weeks her only interaction with her son Neville, who had since left the hospital with his aunt, would be over video calls, as her body struggled to fight off the virus in the ICU.

“That was hell,” she said. “I’m not saying the treatment and medical staff were not great, they were great. But just being in there and being so isolated, so restricted. You’re just like in these four walls closed in. And then not having anybody to talk to.”

“I reached out to my church family and we all prayed together over zoom. And they have been there since then,” she said, through tears.”

Low blood pressure and a terrible cough turned into pneumonia, a struggle to breathe and a failing heart.

“My body just can’t even handle it. I don’t even know what’s going on. I’m just so sick,” she remembers. “It almost felt like death was coming. Was so close by. But they held on to that faith. They kept reminding me that God is with you. That they were praying for me.”

Ahsan finally came home from the hospital this week, with a new respect for life and the sickness that kept her away from those she loves most.

“I want to cherish every single moment I have for my loved ones, my family, my church,” she said.

She has since reunited with her husband and 8-year-old daughter. The department of health told her she was no longer contagious, but she remained concerned about her son.

“I don’t want him to get infected,” she said. “Catch anything. Just anything alone just scares me.”

Ahsan expects to hold him for the first time in the coming days. She will be on a ventilator until at least her next appointment in two weeks.

“Please just take extra precautions out there,” she now warns others. “For the next mom, for the next baby, for the next family.”