Mother dies after giving birth, 17-day coma

Family members and friends had been praying for the recovery of a 34-year-old mother of two children who fell into a coma soon after delivering her third baby. But their 17-day wait for her to wake up and see her newborn for the first time ended tragically on Friday. Ruksana Abdulla, 34, an Indian housewife, died on Friday, her father told Gulf News. The mother had been put on life support at the Abu Dhabi hospital soon after the delivery of her third baby on May 23. Baby sent home with grandmother “We lost the hope by Thursday that mother and the baby may not be able see each other [as per the indications received from the doctors]. So we sent the baby back home Thursday night with his grandmother [the mother of the deceased],” Mustafa Ebrahim, the grieving father, said Saturday evening. Ruksana’s daughter Wafa, 10, and son Abdul Rahman, 7, were also sent home a week ago when mother’s condition deteriorated. The family had been expecting joy with the arrival of the newborn as everything had gone smoothly until her delivery. “She had been perfectly healthy throughout her life. And periodic check-up during the pregnancy also did not indicate any problems,” Ebrahim said. Rare medical condition “The doctors said she had ‘Amniotic Fluid Embolism’, a rare medical condition occurring to one in thousand patients”, the father said. Amniotic fluid embolism (AFE) is a rare obstetric emergency in which amniotic fluid, foetal cells, hair, or other debris enter the maternal circulation, causing cardiorespiratory collapse. AFE is listed on her death certificate as the direct cause of death. As the family was preparing to fly home Saturday night with Ruksana’s body, her husband Abdulla was not in a position to speak. “The hard part is how to tell Wafa and Abdul Rahman (her two older children) that their mother is no more,” said Ebrahim, their grandfather. Ruksana’s body was buried at her home town Kannur in Kerala.