Nine days after giving birth to twins, a Utah mother passed away from a rare cardiac ailment.
According to her family, Morgan Hughes, 23, of Benjamin, was thrilled to give birth to a boy and a girl on December 19 because she had always dreamed of becoming a mother. After giving delivery, Hughes made a full recovery and left the hospital a few days later. According to Hughes’ father, Brian Hodson, the twins, who were born roughly six weeks early, were admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit to recover.
Eager to bring the twins home, Hughes and her husband, 23-year-old Sam Hughes, named them Hudson and Georgia and paid them a visit in the NICU.
However, Hughes began to feel strange about a week after giving birth. She fainted and vomited, and Hodson believed she could have had a seizure. When she went back to the hospital, Hodson claimed, the doctors found fluid surrounding her heart. A unusual kind of heart failure known as postpartum cardiomyopathy, or peripartum cardiomyopathy, was identified in her. It occurs when the heart muscle weakens around the end of pregnancy or for up to five months after delivery.
If identified early enough, peripartum cardiomyopathy may occasionally be treated with medicine to enhance heart function and prevent fluid retention. However, the American Heart Association states that signs of heart failure, including as shortness of breath and swelling in the legs and feet, might resemble pregnancy symptoms, making the illness hard to diagnose.
According to Hodson, Hughes soon worsened and was treated in the intensive care unit. She went into cardiac arrest and passed away on December 28.
It has been disastrous. Hodson, who resides in Cedar Hills, Utah, which is roughly 30 miles north of Benjamin, said, “We definitely weren’t expecting this at all.”
Hodson added that the twins’ delivery had gone incredibly well and that Hughes was eager to begin life as a family of four.
“She has loved babies forever and has always wanted to be a mother,” he said. Even in her early years, she was referred to be the baby whisperer.
It’s unclear what causes peripartum cardiomyopathy. Pregnancies with twins or other multiples, mother age of 35 or older, and high blood pressure, particularly pre-eclampsia, a dangerous pregnancy condition marked by raised blood pressure, are among the risk factors that experts say seem to exist. Hughes was otherwise healthy, according to Hodson, but she was diagnosed with pre-eclampsia late in her pregnancy.
Dr. Patrick S. Ramsey, chief of maternal-fetal medicine at UT Health San Antonio in Texas, estimates that peripartum cardiomyopathy affects around 1 in 2,000 live deliveries and is more common in Black women.
Ramsey, who did not treat Hughes, said, “We don’t know exactly why it’s a condition that is increasing in frequency over the past several decades.” Ramsey also contributed to the writing of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists’ guidelines on cardiovascular disease during pregnancy.
Hodson said his daughter was the most loving, hilarious, and kind person. She had just finished cosmetology school to become a hair stylist.
As her shocked family gathered around her, hospital staff at Utah Valley Hospital in Provo wheeled the Hughes twins from the NICU to her room shortly after she passed away, placing one baby in each of her arms for a final farewell, according to Hodson.
He claimed that while it was a pleasant image to recall, it was difficult to consider. It was heartbreaking but incredibly sweet.
Due to patient privacy rules, the hospital chose not to comment.
It is anticipated that the twins will be discharged later this month, but they are now in the NICU. Morgan s husband, who declined to be interviewed, has been a rock star, Hodson said, frequently coming to the NICU to feed, bathe and bond with his babies as he grieves the loss of his wife. The couple was married in 2023.
Hodson and Hughes mother, Christy Hodson, have joined for many of the NICU visits with their grandbabies.
You sit and hold them and just stare at them, Hodson said. It s the best place to be, but to me, sometimes it s the hardest place to be, because you re sitting there going, well, Morgan should be holding the babies. Morgan should be feeding the babies.
Hughes death is one of hundreds of maternal deaths that occur each year in the United States, many of which are preventable.
In 2022, the most recent data available, 817 women died of maternal causes in the United States, according tothe Centers for Disease Control and Prevention s National Vital Statistics System. The World Health Organization defines maternal deaths as those that take place during pregnancy or within 42 days after delivery.
That number of 800 is unacceptable, Ramsey said. I think we have a lot of great work to do to try to improve that.
There has been some progress: CDC data shows that the national maternal mortality rate for 2022 decreased to 22.3 deaths per 100,000 live births, compared to a rate of 32.9 in 2021. (Some experts believe the pandemic contributed to the rate being particularly high in 2021.)
Hodson said he hopes the twins will grow up knowing how much their mom adored them.
That s all she wanted in life, was to be a mom, he said. She would have loved them more than anything.
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