H1N1 Survivor Lives to See Baby Boy

(CBS)  Pregnant women make up six percent of H1N1 confirmed deaths, even though they account for only one percent of the population.

CBS medical correspondent Dr. Jennifer Ashton told "Early Show" co-anchor Maggie Rodriguez the story of one pregnant woman who contracted H1N1, and didn't know if she'd survive.

CBSNews.com Special Report: H1N1

At nine months pregnant, Karin McHugh had one of the worst cases of H1N1 doctors had ever seen. But remarkably, she lived to tell the story.

"He's perfect, we couldn't ask for a healthier baby," McHugh said about her son. "I just want to hold him close to me all the time."

Liam McHugh is not like any other two month old, Ashton remarked, he is a miracle baby.

But Liam's mother almost didn't live to see her beautiful baby boy.

McHugh was nine months pregnant in July when she developed flu-like symptoms and struggled to breathe.

Slideshow: The Six Stages of Sickness

Rushed to the hospital, doctors delivered Liam by emergency C-section, but then McHugh started crashing.

"I said to my husband if I don't make it out of this, I'm sorry if I wasn't a good wife," McHugh said. "It was a downward spiral. I mean I almost didn't make it."

Pregnant women are among the most at risk, and at that time there was no vaccine available.

"I really put her in God's hands," said her husband, Brian McHugh. "I didn't know where else to go. They were doing everything they could."

Doctors turned to heart-lung bypass. A machine circulated oxygenated blood back into her system for almost a month.

After seven weeks in a medically-induced coma, McHugh survived, and held her newborn baby for the first time.

"I guess it just wasn't my time," McHugh said. "I mean, I wasn't ready to leave this earth."

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For more information on the H1N1 flu, go to the CDC Web site's H1N1 page by clicking here.

[FanCanada]

This is an uplifting story of survival. I wonder, however, how much this mother will have to pay for her 7 week stay in the hospital. Will she and her husband have to mortgage their home? Did she have to get pre-approval to stay in the hospital?

In Canada, this would be free.