(Timpanogos Regional Hospital. Photo: Randall Jeppesen, file, 2009)
OREM, Utah -– The family of a Brigham City woman report she’s clinging to life after being infected with COVID-19 during the third trimester of her pregnancy. According to the family, she may not get the chance to meet her newborn son.
The family hopes her story will persuade more people to follow public safety recommendations to limit the spread of the virus.
The family of Grayson Crandal said she was advised not to get the COVID-19 vaccination during her pregnancy by her obstetrician because she was entering her final trimester. Crandal’s aunt, Jenny Bakes, said she recently came into contact with a man who had the Delta variant and he didn’t know it at the time.
Bakes said, “He was also not wearing a mask. He went in and a few days later he discovered he had COVID.”
That man reportedly reached out to the people with whom he was in contact to inform them he contracted the Delta variant of COVID-19. In a short time, Crandal reportedly started feeling strong symptoms.
“You sit and think about what’s happening and how quickly this all happened,” Bakes said. “I mean, this didn’t roll out in a matter of weeks or months. This was days.”
Crandal originally went to Brigham City Community Hospital, but Bakes said doctors realized they needed more intensive care than they could provide. Crandal was transferred to Timpanogos Regional Medical Center in Orem.
“They decided it was in her best interests, as well as the child’s, to do an emergency C-section. The baby was six weeks premature, and he’s very small, but each day he’s getting better,” said Bakes.
However, Crandal hasn’t improved. Bakes said her niece has been unconscious and on a ventilator since the C-section, and she hasn’t been able to meet her baby boy.
She said, “It’s devastating to think we could lose her, and she will never have held her child.”
Bakes said she hopes Crandal’s story will persuade more people to get the COVID-19 vaccine. Or, if they choose not to be vaccinated, she calls on people to follow public safety recommendations like wearing masks and staying socially distant.