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Home › Articles › Pregnancy › Surviving the Syndrome

Surviving the Syndrome

Rare Condition, HELLP, Requires Fast Treatment

By Jenn Director Knudsen

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Severe upper abdominal pain – caused by a swollen liver – nausea, vomiting and feeling "not quite right" all are symptoms in later pregnancy that should set off alarm bells.

If HELLP goes undiagnosed or untreated, a woman risks suffering liver failure, a ruptured liver, stroke, heart failure and placental abruption (a separation of the placenta from the uterine wall that can cause fetal death).

Fast Delivery
It's a good thing Rubinstein "humored" her physician. The tests her doctor ran confirmed not only her sky-high blood pressure, but also revealed elevated liver enzymes, an engorged liver and very low platelet count (which hampers the blood's ability to clot).

Rubinstein recalls her doctor told her, "If we don't deliver this baby, you're going to die."

Shortly after her daughter's birth, Rubinstein's vital signs quickly stabilized, which is normal, according to Dr. Silver. But her daughter's start wasn't quite as auspicious as her own recovery.

Rough Beginnings
Due the day before Christmas, Rubinstein's daughter, Rebecca, was delivered via emergency C-section on September 21, at 26 weeks, 5 days gestation. The jaundiced preemie weighed 2 pounds, 3 ounces, was 14 inches long and began her life in a NICU on 100 percent oxygen, more than five times the amount in room air.

Becka, as the now healthy and accomplished high school junior is known, spent six months in the NICU and, once home, experienced physical and mental delays in her early years; she didn't walk until she was 2.


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