"They were in shock but said their goodbyes," Lauren's husband said about the four grieving sons.
Losing a loved one is an experience that can shatter one's world. But losing a pregnant wife and an unborn child can be a trauma beyond comprehension. The husband and father is left to grapple with the agony of losing two lives that were intertwined with his own.
Ben Thompson, a man from Queensland, said that his wife Lauren had a healthy and normal pregnancy, her fifth after having four boys. But on March 31 their entire world flipped upside down when she began experiencing excruciating stomach pain before bed. "It just became more and more painful to the point where she was getting scared, I started getting scared, and so I called Triple-0," the 42-year-old father told Yahoo News Australia. "She actually thought it was [from something] she’d eaten earlier. But knowing what we know now, it was a ruptured uterus and she was actually bleeding out."
After arriving at Redcliffe Hospital. around 40 doctors and nurses worked to try and save the 39-year-old mother and her baby who was later named Hannah. "They needed to get her out," the father said. Three hours later he received the devastating news that his wife and his daughter, both had passed away. But minutes later he received another piece of news that said that her wife had pulled through and was in critical condition.
Over the following week, the father clutched on to the hope the doctor gave him, however despite showing signs of recovery his wife suffered an unrecoverable brain bleed. "I had a conversation with the lead doctors who said it was an unrecoverable brain bleed at the back of her head. It wasn't repairable, you couldn't function properly after that kind of an injury to the brain," he said. The next day he made the decision to "remove all the tubes and let her pass."
"They were in shock but said their goodbyes. They said 'Mummy I love you and gave her a kiss'," the dad revealed about the emotions felt by their four sons, adding, they couldn't handle it for too long. "I could foresee how many layers of trauma there were that we were going to have to work through."
The single parent is now coping with his grief and trying to be there for their four boys, "Lauren was the most incredible mum, she devoted her life to her boys," a GoFundMe page set up for the father and the kids read. "Anyone who has met them could feel the love and respect between them all. She will be so deeply missed by everyone, especially her family."
The family is hoping to raise $60,000 for funeral costs and future expenses through the fundraiser.
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Cover Image Source: GoFundMe
