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Surviving the Syndrome
Rare Condition, HELLP, Requires Fast Treatment
By Jenn Director Knudsen
Jane Rubinstein felt great during her first pregnancy – until the 26th week. Suddenly, she experienced upper abdominal pain that kept her up at night, and the pain was far worse than pregnancy-induced heartburn.
It was "a constriction, a pressure," she explains from her home in Farmingdale, N.Y., of her experience more than 16 years ago. "It felt tight and uncomfortable" in an area on the righthand side, just under her breasts.
Finally, days later, she told her husband, "You know what? This isn't right," and called her obstetrician. Rubinstein says he told her to meet him at the hospital's labor and delivery department immediately.
"I felt like I was humoring him," she says, but went to the hospital anyway. Her OB ran some blood tests, took her blood pressure – which had shot up to a hazardous 220/110 – and confirmed his fear: HELLP syndrome.
HELLP syndrome – an acronym that stands for hemolysis (breaking down of red blood cells), elevated liver enzymes, low platelets – is a rare, little-known complication of pregnancy but perhaps one of the most dangerous. It strikes suddenly, with little to no warning, and the only treatment to save the life of the mother and the baby is delivery. The key to prevention is to know the syndrome's telltale signs and waste no time in consulting your health care provider, say doctors and survivors of the syndrome.
"A woman needs to be persistent in asking for tests to be run if she feels poorly during pregnancy," says Jennifer Bohach, 39, who had HELLP seven years ago. "I go back to the night I was diagnosed. I was hesitant to call the doctor in the middle of the night if all I had was 'indigestion.' If I had waited until morning, I would not have been alive to do so."
Tragically, though, Bohach's daughter, Taylor Hope, wasn't so lucky. Born three months early via emergency Cesarean section, she died after a nine-week struggle in the neonatal intensive care unit.
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