Right Place at the Right Time

A year ago, Amy Attal De Simone came to Austin from Atlanta for her baby shower. The last things she expected to take home were her new baby and an incredible success story.

28 weeks into a normal pregnancy, Amy knew something was wrong when she felt contractions the morning of her baby shower. She went straight to Seton Medical Center Austin and was quickly sent to Labor & Delivery. “When I met the doctors and nurses, I knew I was in the right place at the right time,” she says.

The Seton team closely monitored Amy and took steps to stop the contractions and protect the baby. However, three days later she went into full labor, and the Seton team responded swiftly. A neonatologist talked to Amy and her husband, Michael, about what they could expect with a premature birth and gave Michael a tour of the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). “As scared as I was,” says Amy, “I felt I was getting the very best care in the world.”

Every premature birth is stressful, but this survival story was just beginning. At the same time her son, Aiden, was born and rushed to Seton’s NICU, Amy suffered an amniotic fluid embolism, an extremely rare occurrence (unrelated to preterm labor) that is typically not survivable. Within hours of Amy’s life-threatening complications, the obstetrician handling the delivery coordinated with an on-site radiology team to perform a very specialized procedure while also avoiding a partial hysterectomy.

“The fact that they all reacted so quickly to this extremely rare condition, saving my life and protecting my long-term options, was truly amazing,” says Amy.

Little Aiden also played a starring role in this drama. Weighing only 2 pounds, 13 ounces at birth, he spent 66 days getting stronger in the Seton Medical Center Austin’s NICU. “Everyone was so wonderful,” says Amy. “The neonatology team, the nurses, the lactation consultants, the parent educators—they all truly went the extra mile to make us feel at ease the entire time Aiden was there, and we felt really well prepared when we finally took him home.”