“If I wanted to describe her to someone, I’d describe her as all woman,” Shabazz said. “She was very generous, motivated, dedicated to her family, her work ethic was amazing… she was just a caring loving person.”
Her pregnancy had been going well, Shabazz said. She was not high risk and had been regularly going to her prenatal visits.
“I was excited… because this is what I always wanted, I always wanted a family,” he said.
But during labor, Dickey began having trouble breathing. Within minutes, she went into cardiac arrest and doctors performed an emergency c-section to try to save her and the baby.
“[I thought] this can’t be happening, it seemed like a dream,” Shabazz said. “They asked me to step out. I stepped outside of the room and I could just hear him saying … we’re trying to bring her back, trying to grab a pulse.”
Doctors delivered the baby, but for Dickey, it was too late.
Read it all (the video is highly recommended if you have time).
1/ Please watch:
This @Nightline segment both uplifting & wrenching, illustrates gap between how deeply we value American mothers and how unreliably we support their wellbeing.
Better is possible. Paying attention #BeyondMothersDay a good first step…https://t.co/Gu2gMPTZr7 pic.twitter.com/fYK9kNxXUP
— Neel Shah, MD (@neel_shah) May 17, 2018