After surviving COVID-19, New York mom finally meets baby born while she was in a coma

It was the moment all of Yanira Soriano's doctors and nurses had been waiting for — the first time the New York mom was able to hold her baby, born while she was in a medically induced coma.

Earlier this month, Soriano tested positive for COVID-19 and pneumonia, and was immediately admitted to Southside Hospital in Bay Shore, New York. She was 34 weeks pregnant, and Dr. Benjamin Schwartz, chairman of the hospital's Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, said because of the "critical nature" of her case, she had to be put into a medically induced coma and placed on a ventilator.

An emergency cesarean section was performed, and Soriano's son, Walter, was transferred to a children's hospital in New York City while his mother remained in the intensive care unit. After two weeks, Soriano recovered, and upon her discharge last Wednesday, she was finally able to meet Walter. Hospital workers cheered as Walter was put into Soriano's arms for the first time, and Schwartz said it was an "incredibly proud moment" for everyone who helped make it happen.

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"It takes many, many people over many, many shifts to provide the level of care that this patient needed," Schwartz added. "Many patients that end up on a ventilator with a COVID-19 pneumonia do not survive, and the fact that this mom not only survived but was able to get out of her wheelchair and walk into her car and hold her baby gives us incredible hope for future patients and our existing patients that have COVID disease." Catherine Garcia