Ohio mother survives rare pregnancy-related heart failure after emergency C-section

Casey Gould had wanted to be a mother her entire life, but after three miscarriages and years of infertility, that dream had seemed painfully out of reach until she conceived Archer with her husband, Ben Rosenberger. She felt healthy through most of the pregnancy and was due on Halloween, but her labor on Nov. 1, 2024, turned into a medical emergency that ended with her fighting for her life.

After about 36 hours in labor at Atrium Medical Center in Middletown, Ohio, Gould said she suddenly saw shadows and felt a deep sense of dread in her chest. “I’m gonna die. This is it. I’m about to die,” she told her doctor as her son’s heart rate dropped and the team rushed to perform an emergency C-section. Her epidural was not strong enough, so doctors placed her under anesthesia. Archer was born healthy.

What happened next was even more dangerous. Gould could not breathe after delivery and rapidly lost her vital signs. Her ICU and cardiology teams rushed in as she crashed, and doctors diagnosed her with peripartum cardiomyopathy, also called postpartum cardiomyopathy, a rare form of pregnancy-related heart failure that typically develops in the last month of pregnancy or within five months after delivery.

Her doctors faced a stark decision: attempt a heart transplant or use an Impella device, a temporary mechanical pump that can support the heart while a patient stabilizes. They chose the Impella. Gould spent three days in a coma before waking up, and she now returns for annual follow-up checkups.

The case underscores how easily peripartum cardiomyopathy can be missed. The American Heart Association and Johns Hopkins Medicine describe it as an uncommon form of heart failure that can appear near the end of pregnancy or after delivery, often when no other cause of heart failure is found. Its warning signs can resemble ordinary pregnancy complaints, including fatigue and shortness of breath, which can delay recognition until the condition becomes life-threatening.

That risk matters far beyond one Ohio hospital room. A review in The New England Journal of Medicine says the condition complicates about 1 in 2,000 births worldwide and is four times as likely to develop in Black women in the United States as in White women. Gould’s husband later described the outcome in simple terms: “right place, right time, best work possible.” For pregnant patients and the hospitals treating them, her survival is a reminder that sudden chest symptoms, trouble breathing and a fast decline after delivery should never be minimized.