WATERTOWN, S.D. (KELO) — A Watertown woman is grateful for a team of doctors and nurses who saved her life after complications following child birth.
On the Fourth of July, Nicole Rislov was admitted to the hospital due to high blood pressure. She was 36.5 weeks pregnant at the time, and doctors decided to start the inducing process.
She gave birth to her daughter Maclay on July 6.
“Everything had went really well. I thought everything was perfect. They were aware going into it. They had a team on standby with all the meds and everything prepared because I had hemorrhage prior,” Rislov said.
Rislov says a large team of doctors and nurses came in to help control extreme bleeding, which was the beginning of a week-long hospital stay.
“I could tell by the look on everyone’s faces that the bleeding was substantially worse than I was even aware of,” she said.
Dr. Miranda Pray-Dede works in OB/GYN at the Sanford Clinic in Watertown. She was called in to help.
“After she delivered, the baby came out fine, but then the placenta did not. And so by the time I was called, she had lost quite a bit of blood and it got emergent really fast,” she said.
They were unsure if Rislov was going to make it.
“Dr. Pray-Dede had actually reached out to my mom, my parents to essentially say goodbye to them because I lost so much blood at that point in time already,” Rislov said.
But after a lot of time, medicines and procedures, they were able to turn things around.
“It really is a privilege to be able to take care of these people and for them to trust you and for your colleagues to trust you to come in and save their lives,” Pray-Dede said.
Rebecca Erickson is a nurse at Prairie Lakes Hospital and was there throughout the process.
“Many of us looked at each other like we didn’t think she was going to make it and decided that we needed to give 110% and we saved her. It was a team effort,” Erickson said.
Rislov says she can’t thank the team of medical professionals that saved her life enough.
“It also gives you a different perspective on life and appreciation for how valuable this life is, and I get this beautiful little girl I get to love every single day. But not only that – and just look at the people and see them, they know how much they cared for her and I,” she said.
Rislov says she started to feel like normal again about a month after everything and being home from the hospital. She will continue to have regular check-ups.
Monday, she helped the hospital honor Dr. Pray-Dede through Sanford’s “Guardian Angel” program.
