MACON, Ga. — When Tiffany Owenby was 26 weeks pregnant with her son James in 2021, she eagerly anticipated his birth. “I’d think about sleeping on my side every night. Whenever I’d roll over in bed easily and sleep on my side, I’d remember when I dreamed about doing this again,” she recalled.
Mindy Corbin
However, her nurse, Mindy Corbin, has a different recollection of that time. “It was the worst 12 hours of my life,” Corbin said, describing her toughest shift in eight years at Piedmont Macon. “I cried the entire time. We intubated, proned her, and she was cannulated for ECMO. At one point, they said she needed a lung transplant.”
Corbin added, “Given the circumstances, she should not have made it. She’s a miracle, she really is.”
Owenby’s memories of that time are less clear. “I actually don’t remember that time,” she said. “From what I’ve been told, it happened pretty quickly. I was okay, and then suddenly I was not.”
In August 2021, the COVID vaccine was approved for pregnant women. Owenby received her first dose on the first day it was available. “I came down with COVID between my two doses,” she said.
As her symptoms worsened, Owenby was put on a BiPAP machine. “They roll in with her on this BiPAP, and her husband is on FaceTime,” she said.
Corbin remembers the moment vividly. “We’d tube them first, then intubate them. After sedating and paralyzing her, we’d turn her face down, where she remained my entire shift,” she said.
Owenby was later transferred to Piedmont Atlanta, and Corbin couldn’t stop thinking about her patient for weeks. “I just remember dreaming that Tiffany was holding a baby, but I didn’t know if that was real life or her in heaven,” Corbin said.
Corbin searched obituaries for Owenby’s name, struck by her case. “The only things I know in life are how to be a nurse and how to be a mom,” she said.
James was born on August 26, 2021, but Owenby, who had been in a coma for two weeks and on life support for seven weeks, didn’t meet her son until October 14.
Owenby and Corbin reconnected when Owenby was in rehab that November. Nearly three years later, Nurse Corbin finally met James. “Miracle baby and miracle mom!” Corbin exclaimed.
Though she’s healing, Tiffany still feels pins and needles in her left foot. “It basically feels like it’s asleep,” she said. “I wasn’t moving for two weeks, and it’s amazing how quickly you lose muscle mass.”
Despite this, Owenby is preparing for the Peachtree Road Race, a 10K in Atlanta happening on July 4. “It was kinda just a personal goal,” she said.
Ever since giving birth to her son, Owenby has been counting her blessings. “Little things now that I consider miracles that other people may not think of,” she said. “Post-COVID, I’m very lucky, honestly, that I can walk at all.”
The Peachtree Road Race will send waves of runners every five minutes beginning at 7 a.m. on July 4. The 55th annual 10K will feature over 50,000 participants.
