A woman has beat the odds to survive after her husband refused to let doctors switch off her life support machine despite medics saying she had "zero percent" chance of recovering.
Autumn Carver was hospitalized in 2021 after contracting coronavirus while pregnant after deciding not to get the vaccine over fears she would have a miscarriage, having lost three pregnancies previously.
She was put on a ventilator and her son Huxley was delivered by emergency cesarean section at 33 weeks, after which Carver was put on a life support machine.
Carver then spent two months on an ECMO (extracorporeal membrane oxygenation) machine, to oxygenate her blood and help her organs recover - however her husband was told by a doctor that patients who spent over a month on ECMO have less than "five percent" chance of recovery without a lung transplant.
Throughout the pandemic, ECMO machines were used to treat patients who were the most severely affected by Covid by removing carbon dioxide from red blood cells and reoxygenating it through a machine.
While the use of ECMO helped save many patients' lives, remaining on it for extended periods can mean the outlook for recovery is lower than for those who spend shorter time on the machines.
Specialist surgeon Dr Ankit Bharat told People: "When we took on Autumn, the probability was pretty low that she would get better because she had been on the ventilator and ECMO for an extended period of time. If you need ECMO for over a month, your probability of coming off without something like a lung transplant is less than 5 percent."
He added that despite the outlook being bleak, a decision was made to allow Carver more time for her body to recover of its own accord by adjusting to a different form of ECMO which is better for lung recovery.
Dr Bharat added: "We changed everything, and we gave her some more time to improve. And she started to show improvement in her lung function. So we said, 'Okay. Well, let's just keep holding off on transplant because if you can get her better without a transplant, that's always the best thing.'"
Carver's husband Zach said it was the "worst day of [his] life" when he was told that his wife's chances of survival were so slim, but he never gave up hope that she would pull through.
Dr Bharat's hope that Carver might improve if given more time was proven correct, as she slowly and steadily improved enough that she was eventually able to be taken off life support and meet her baby son for the first time, before being released from intensive care a month later.
Carver, who had been admitted to hospital in August, was finally discharged and allowed home in December after having physical, occupational, and speech therapy, where she was able to enjoy Christmas with her husband, two daughters, and her baby son.
Doctors said that she had a "miracle" recovery after leaving with 40 percent lung capacity, and nerve damage to her leg, and while her lungs will never recover to how they were before she had Covid, Dr Bharat says she will be able to "lead a normal life" with her family.
