'I gave birth to twins while in a coma due to Covid'

Four years after giving birth to twins while in a coma due to coronavirus, a mother has reflected on her newfound appreciation for life.

In January 2021, Sultana from Luton was about 31 weeks pregnant with twin girls when she contracted Covid-19.

She was placed into an induced coma before doctors performed a Caesarean section to save her daughters Aizah and Amarah.

Sultana did eventually recover and described the NHS staff who cared for her as "angels".

After contracting Covid, Sultana was admitted to Luton & Dunstable Hospital and remembered telling doctors she could not breathe as her unborn twins put pressure on her infected lungs.

She was placed on a ventilator and later induced into a coma, and she woke up 21 days later in a different hospital very confused.

Sultana learned her twins had been born and transferred to the hospital's neonatal intensive care unit, weighing just 1.2kg (2.6lb) and 1.3kg (2.9lb).

She had been transferred to Royal Papworth Hospital in Cambridge and placed on life support.

"It was absolutely scary," she recalled. "I realised how much damage a virus can cause.

"For me, a virus was like the flu or a cold, not something that could cause this magnitude of damage."

She described missing her daughters' birth as "a huge gap in my life that can never be filled".

Four years on, her girls are happy and healthy and enjoying life with their older brother, but Sultana was later diagnosed with chronic fatigue and fibromyalgia.

However, she said had a new appreciation for life.

"I never knew life was such a beautiful thing until I went far from it," she said.

"That's when I realised how important it is, how important your family is, how important your kids are, how important your colleagues are; you need to have a normal functioning life."

Nayeem, Sultana's husband, also caught Covid around the same time in 2021.

After the twins were born he was unable to see them until he had a negative test and was also unable to see his wife due to the restrictions.

He said the day he was told of his daughter's birth, he was also told the severity of his wife's condition and did not "know how to feel or what to feel".

"[I was] really anxious all the time," he explained.

"If I didn't get a welfare check call from one of the teams either in the Luton Hospital from the neonatal care unit or from the Royal Papworth doctors to keep me updated about my wife, I would have been anxious throughout the day [about] why I didn't get an update.

"But at the same time after that update, I would wait and pray that I didn't get another call because I usually get one update a day."

He used to travel to Royal Papworth Hospital every day just to be in the vicinity and feel close to his wife before rushing back to Luton to see his girls.

"I couldn't give up on her, I never gave up for a moment," he added.

He described her recovery as "nothing short of a miracle" and that the couple had gotten their life back together.

Jo-anne Fowles is a nurse consultant at the critical care unit at Royal Papworth and recently met the family when they came to meet with staff.

It was an "overwhelming" moment and seeing patients doing so well kept her motivated, Ms Fowles said.

Another Royal Papworth doctor who cared for Sultana was Stephen Webb, a consultant in intensive care, who is also the deputy medical director.

"I remember treating her so clearly," he explained. "I remember discussing her case and wondering is it the right thing to do for her, making a decision involving lots of other people.

"Of course there were many other patients like her."

Ellen Goode, deputy lead for physiotherapy at Royal Papworth's critical care unit, was a student caring for Sultana in 2021.

"It's so nice when families and patients come back and we can see what they're doing in life," she said.

"Seeing the children as well is so lovely because I definitely remember seeing [their] photos, they were up on the ceiling, they were all around the sides as well [when Sultana was in intensive care]."

Follow Beds, Herts and Bucks news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.