Mum in coma for two days before meeting triplets after seizure at birth

After six years of trying to conceive, four miscarriages and three rounds of IVF, Leonie Fitzgerald finally fell pregnant with triplets at 45. But there was one final hurdle as she suffered a massive seizure a day before she was due to meet her babies.

A Queensland mum has revealed her traumatic story of giving birth to triplets after suffering a massive seizure that put her in a coma, forcing doctors to perform an emergency caesarean.

After six years of trying, four miscarriages and three rounds of IVF, Leonie Fitzgerald finally fell pregnant with triplets at the age of 45.

But Mrs Fitzgerald and her husband Peter had one last hurdle to navigate after checking into the Mater Mothers Hospital a day before she was scheduled for a caesarean at 32 weeks – she suffered a horror seizure, caused by eclampsia and high blood pressure.

“I was in hospital, just having dinner, and Peter was on the phone to my dad saying, ‘yeah she’s all good she’s just having some barramundi’,” Mrs Fitzgerald said.

“Then I felt like something was not right. And I told him something was not right, and I remember saying it again to him, but I didn’t know what it was and I couldn’t explain it and that was it, I started to seize.

Leonie with Liliana, Charlotte and Isabella. Picture: Annette Dew

“They pressed the emergency button and I heard him shout ‘do something’ and then the crash cart team arrived, they raced me down to the theatre and put me under general aesthetic rather than a spinal because there was just no time.”

Mrs Fitzgerald’s obstetrician Paul Conaghan raced to the hospital and within minutes delivered the three beautiful, healthy girls.

But Mrs Fitzgerald’s blood pressure was too chaotic and she was placed in a medically induced coma so that doctors could investigate the cause of the seizure. It would be days before she could meet Liliana, Isabella and Charlotte, who had been in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU).

“They delivered the girls within 21 minutes of me starting to seize, and they all came out within 15 seconds of each other,” Mrs Fitzgerald said.

The triplets with their father after birth.

“After the births I went into ICU in a medically induced coma so they could run tests. Because of the little warning, they were checking if it was a burst blood vessel in the brain, a heart attack, a first epileptic episode, or a blood clot embolus.”

It took Mrs Fitzgerald two days to fully wake up from her coma, and a further two weeks to recover from the drugs used to induce her.

“I had the seizure on Sunday and got to meet the girls on Tuesday at lunchtime. I remember meeting them but my mind was still foggy, and the NICU was a pretty intense environment, so it was a bit overwhelming,” she said.

“The babies are all tubed up, and I was all tubed up because I had an enlarged heart as a result of the stress of the seizure.

“But I had a miraculous healing, I surprised the medical team. I had all kinds of specialists come in to see me, I was like this amazing example of survival and it seemed like everybody in the hospital wanted to meet me.”

Leonie Fitzgerald fell pregnant after years of trying to conceive and multiple miscarriages.

Despite her lightning recovery, the most phenomenal aspect for Mrs Fitzgerald was the miraculous health of her new children. The triplets spent just five weeks in NICU before heading home to mum, and will celebrate their second birthday on August 23.

“Being triplets and the experience they all went through … to survive without any health issues, that’s quite uncommon,” she said.

“After everything, I feel really honoured the girl chose us to be their parents. It’s an amazing journey, you can't even describe it. There’s so much love in the house.

“And there’s always someone to cuddle.”