Chip Chick
She was soon transferred from St. Peter’s Hospital in New Jersey to the hospital of the University of Pennsylvania.
Doctors placed her on ECMO there, which her friends describe as “a heart-lung bypass machine, which oxygenates the blood and then pumps it back into the patient’s body.” They clarify that “It acts as Sabina’s lungs because her own lungs had quit working.”
While in an induced coma, doctors waited for Sabina’s body to heal and regain function. But her baby had other plans; Sabina gave birth prematurely after a week in the hospital.
But thankfully, the baby was healthy, besides slightly underdeveloped lungs, and she was placed in the NICU.
As Sabina continues to recover, her family is trying to plan for the road ahead. But doctors warned them that healing would be difficult even off the ECMO machine, and treatments would be costly.
There is also the matter of her husband caring for their children alone. “Sabina’s husband is currently the only one working while taking care of their two boys, 5 and 4 years old, while impatiently waiting to be allowed to visit his newborn daughter.”
So far, the GoFundMe has raised $41,000 of their $100,000 goal. Sabina has now been on ECMO for more than a week, and medical professionals told her family it takes up to 45 days for most patients to come off the machine. So doctors are rotating her daily to help fluid drain from her lungs.
GoFundMe; pictured above is Sabrina with her family
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