SEEING the two pink lines appearing on the pregnancy test, Hinda Abrahams felt her stomach drop.
She had been bleeding for days and knew immediately that something was seriously wrong but what she could never have expected was that within an hour, she would be dead.
When Hinda Abrahams began to experience bleeding she knew immediately that something was wrong Credit: Jam Press/@real_autism_mom
It turned out to be an ectopic pregnancy that saw her ‘die’ for 20 seconds Credit: Jam Press/@real_autism_mom
Hinda went to hospital expecting doctors to perform a simple laparoscopic procedure after a suspected
Instead, the 28-year-old woke up in intensive care to learn that her heart had stopped twice during the procedure due to an allergic reaction to leaving her ‘dead’ for 20 seconds.
“When I woke up, I immediately recognised an room, so my first thought was my blood pressure had dropped or something,” Hinda, a teacher from , says.
“Then I saw the clock above the nurses head showing 4pm, meaning it had been five hours since they started the operation and I was only just waking up.
“I knew it wasn’t good.”
The teacher’s terrifying ordeal began on 30 January, when Hinda began experiencing abdominal pain and spotting.
She had been taking without missing any doses and had even had a normal period just two weeks earlier.
After four days of pain and light bleeding, her husband, Theodore, 35, urged her to go to the hospital.
Mum-of-two Hinda says: “I tried to think of what they would look for at the hospital and the first thought that popped into my head was an ectopic pregnancy because I’d read stories of similar, one-sided pain and spotting.”
Despite not missing a single dose of her birth control pill and still breastfeeding her baby, she was “shocked” to learn it was positive.
Hinda says: “I was panicking but my husband, who is my hero, was very calm and immediately took charge, and had someone come stay with the kids so he could take me to the hospital.
“By the time I saw the positive pregnancy, I immediately knew it must be ectopic.
“There was no moment of ‘wow, I’m pregnant’ because I’d been in so much pain for four days.
“The positive pregnancy test was really just an answer in the right direction.”
An ectopic pregnancy is when a fertilised egg implants itself outside of the womb, usually in one of the fallopian tubes.
At the hospital, doctors confirmed she was miscarrying – and also saw a mass near her left ovary.
They scheduled surgery to investigate and remove the suspected ectopic pregnancy.
The procedure was expected to take around 45 minutes.
Hinda, with husband Theodore and their children, suffered an anaphylactic allergic reaction to the general anaesthesia Credit: Jam Press/@real_autism_mom
Doctors had to perform CPR on the mum in order to bring her back from death Credit: Jam Press/@real_autism_mom
But less than 20 minutes after Hinda was taken into surgery, doctors called her husband into a waiting room.
The obstetrician told him that his wife’s heart had stopped twice during the operation due to an anaphylactic allergic reaction to the general anaesthesia.
Hinda says: “When this first happened I thought it was like the movies where CPR always works and the person gets up and goes back to normal.
“I didn’t know that CPR only has at best a 40% survival rate when done in the best medical setting.
“On the street, CPR is only 10% successful.
“Even still, of those who survive CPR enough to get their heart beating again, many of them don’t survive the next two to three days from the complications.
“Of those who survive the pneumonia, many of them have a permanent disability or brain damage from oxygen deprivation.
“The fact that I not only survived it, but don’t have any serious life altering injury from it, is a true miracle and I thank God for it.”
When he arrived at the ICU, she was still unconscious and surrounded by staff working to stabilise her.
Hinda woke up hours later to find herself intubated and unable to breathe on her own.
She was connected to multiple IV lines, had a catheter in place, and had a central line stitched into her neck delivering emergency medication.
Her sternum ached from chest compressions during CPR.
Hinda spent the next three days in intensive care.
She had also developed pneumonia from being intubated and doctors observed signs of heart failure caused by the trauma of the cardiac arrest.
Doctors don’t believe she had any underlying heart condition prior to the incident.
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An happens when a fertilised egg implants outside the womb.
Fertilisation, when the sperm meets the egg, happens in a fallopian tube, and usually the egg should travel to the womb where it implants.
In an ectopic pregnany, the fertilised egg attaches itself somewhere it cannot grow.
Most of the time this is on the fallopian tubes, but it can also happen on the ovaries, the (neck to the womb) or another organ inside the pelvis.
The pregnancy does not usually last longer than 12 weeks, as symptoms will occur before then.
Sadly the pregnancy always has to be terminated. The egg will be removed in an operation or using medicine.
It affects one in every 80 – 90 , or 11,000 pregnancies each year, the NHS says.
Despite the ordeal, she slowly began to recover.
Now recovering at home, Hinda says she still finds it hard to believe what happened.
More than a week after receiving CPR, her sternum is still sore, though she was fortunate not to suffer broken ribs.
Hinda adds: “I can’t believe it all happened – who needs to be resuscitated at 28 years old?
“I know I got super lucky with all of this.
“Not just getting another chance at life, but the fact that I don’t have any permanent injuries or didn’t end up in a coma is a straight-up miracle.
“I also want to raise awareness about the importance of not declining pregnancy tests at hospitals.
“Someone like me who was on birth control and had a period two weeks earlier would understandably think it’s silly to take a pregnancy test.
“If my tube with the ectopic had been rupturing, then knowing it was a pregnancy would have saved my life.”
She wants to raise awareness of ectopic pregnancy Credit: Jam Press/@real_autism_mom
Eze Chidiebere Paul
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