Oceanside mother celebrates birth of new baby who she delivered while experiencing kidney failure
Emily Sammartano, of Oceanside, has an autoimmune disease that causes kidney failure, and after 15 weeks of pregnancy she was on dialysis six days a week for five hours at a time for four months.
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An Oceanside mother is celebrating the birth of new baby who she delivered while experiencing kidney failure.
"I got pregnant the kidney function just rapidly declined to the point where at my current state it just wasn't sustainable to support the pregnancy," said Emily Sammartano.
Doctors with NYU Langone say this was a high-risk pregnancy, and Sammartano could not get a kidney transplant while pregnant, but the dialysis team and fetal medicine specialists worked to deliver a healthy baby.
"Make sure that before her dialysis, after dialysis, we were making sure not only Emily but also the baby was thriving and doing well," said Dr. Martin Chavez, chief of maternal-fetal medicine and fetal surgery at NYU Langone.
The next step for Emily is finding a new kidney, and her husband Sean plans on donating his to NYU Langone, and the couple will participate in the hospital network's kidney transplant program.
"So he will be giving his kidney to a recipient which he matches with and then in turn I will get someone else's kidney," said Emily.
Emily is still on dialysis three days a week.
The new parents hope the kidney transplant happens soon.
"If they said come in tomorrow, I'm ready. I just want to get her back to a normal life, get her off dialysis, and give her the full amount of time with Leo," said Sean Cirillo, of Oceanside.
Doctors at NYU Langone say 15% of the population will have a kidney issue at some point during their life.
