A Los Angeles firefighter is working to raise awareness of rare but life-threatening childbirth complications that have led to the death of his wife, the influential man Hailey Marie Okula, who is influential in care for locally.
Matthew Okula said he hopes his efforts will help educate expectant mothers and encourage them to discuss potential complications with healthcare providers – amniotic fluid embolism. But besides raising public awareness, he said he hopes Hayley’s story prompts other medical research.
“My hope is that we find a way to figure out that this is a fatal complication, trying to save someone’s life,” he said.
After nearly two years of in vitro fertilization treatment, Okulas announced their pregnancy in September 2024 with a video about Hailey’s popular “RN New Grads” Instagram account.
The announcement made particularly meaningful to the couple because “we [had] Having experienced a lot, [Hailey] “It was really special for us to succeed in the end,” Okula told the Times on Friday.
The two met about 13 years ago and turned their eyes to careers they knew would help their community. She became an emergency room nurse. He, a Los Angeles Fire Department firefighter.
Calling his wife “Nurse Hailey” on Instagram and Tiktok, Okula is a driven individual and entrepreneur whose vision supports graduate nurses and helps them discover that work grows into a vibrant social media hub, which includes interviews for sale and interviews with her real-life experience in the emergency room.
Now, after Hailey died of amniotic fluid embolism on March 29, Okula relies on the support of the online community as well as his family and colleagues.
According to the National Organization for Rare Diseases, amniotic fluid embolism is an extremely rare but life-threatening complication that puts health care providers in trouble because there are no previous risk factors and therefore cannot be prevented.
Three days before her death, Hailey was 41 weeks pregnant and planned to induce it at Orange Coast Medical Center in Spring Valley. Okula said they wanted to try to be born naturally because they talked about getting IVF treatment again. The couple hopes to eventually raise their family into four children.
During delivery, health care providers say Hayley must have a cesarean section. The program succeeded and their baby boy crew was born.
“I heard the baby crying, [the doctors] Lifting him up, we see him, Hayley explains one thing about how big he is. ”
Everything seemed normal at the time. Gonla said he cut off the crew’s umbilical cord and the doctor let him know that Hayley was doing well and that he could wait for her in the next room with the baby.
His last conversation with Hayley was to tell her how beautiful the crew was and that he would see her in the next room.
“There was a little tears on her face, so I wiped it off,” he said.
A few minutes later, the doctor entered the room and told Okula Hailey that his heart had stopped. Okula rushed back to the delivery room in a shocking state and found that “15 people carried her back with all these different interventions.”
Hailey was taken to the ICU, but hospital staff quickly conveyed the devastating news: She died of amniotic fluid embolism, and complications Okula had never heard of.
Amniotic fluid is contained in the amniotic membrane, supporting, buffering and protecting the developing fetus.
The researchers hypothesized that complications occur when pregnant women have severe allergic reactions to amniotic fluid or other materials, such as fetal cells entering their mother’s blood, which occurs normally.
Amniotic fluid embolism can cause heart and lung failure, which can lead to several complications due to the lack of oxygenated blood, the Cleveland Clinic said.
Symptoms include shortness of breath, sudden drop in blood pressure, and bleeding problems usually lead to cardiac arrest and heavy bleeding.
Experts say this complication is sudden and may affect the mother and baby before, during or after delivery and delivery.
Due to its rarity and high mortality, the Amniotic Fluid Embolization Foundation says the research is very difficult. However, it is estimated that it will affect 1 out of 40,000 births, with mortality ranging from 20% to 60%.
