Nizhny Novgorod Woman Left Vegetative After Clinical Death During Childbirth
At the end of last year, a 39-year-old woman was admitted to the maternity hospital of Urenskaya Central District Hospital. She underwent a cesarean section during which serious complications arose. The husband of the Nizhny Novgorod woman, Ivan Smirnov, contacted the editorial office of NN.RU and said that during the operation, Ksenia experienced clinical death. Now the Nizhny Novgorod woman is in a vegetative state, and doctors have no precise prognosis for her further condition.
This was Ksenia«s second pregnancy — the couple already has a 5-year-old son. The woman was admitted to the maternity department at Urenskaya Central District Hospital at the end of November 2025 — slightly earlier than the due date.
Since the baby was in breech presentation, the 39-year-old woman was offered two options: have a cesarean section in Urensky District, or natural childbirth in Nizhny Novgorod.
«She is an active, young, healthy woman. There were risks with natural childbirth, but with a cesarean, everything should have been fine. No contraindications. So she agreed,» Ivan says.
The operation was scheduled routinely. The man says he brought his wife to the hospital herself: she was feeling well and promised to write when the procedure was over. Ivan became worried after several hours when there was still no news from his wife.
«I called the hospital right away. They didn»t immediately tell me what happened to her. And then they said, well, the child was born — a boy. But my wife is in intensive care. Then they said she had clinical death,« Ivan recounted.
After that, the man immediately went to the hospital and asked what happened. It turned out that Ksenia«s operation was performed under general anesthesia. The doctors could not answer what caused the clinical death. According to Ivan, the anesthesiologist spoke about poor intubation and problems with the patient»s mouth opening. The man recalls that even words like «this is a one in a million case» were uttered.
As Ivan notes, Ksenia had no health problems before this. She felt perfectly fine before the operation, so such sudden complications shocked her husband.
On the same day, the new mother was transferred to Semashko Hospital in Nizhny Novgorod, where she remains to this day.
«She only started opening her eyes after a few days. I had hope that she would recover, pull through. But she is still lying in a vegetative state. Her arms are stiff, her gaze doesn»t fix on a person, she just moves her eyes. The person has been completely reset,« Ivan said.
Initially, doctors gave no prognosis on whether the woman would survive at all. But now the man is being prepared for the possibility that the mother of his children may spend the rest of her life in this condition.
«Now I have a 5-year-old child and a newborn baby in my hands. I am practically a single father. And I don»t know what to do with her,« Ivan shares.
The interlocutor says that doctors still give minimal forecasts that his wife«s condition can be restored. For this, they plan to transfer her to a clinic in Moscow. But at the moment, Ivan cannot imagine how to live on.
«I told my older son that mom is sick, but how do I explain further that she is sick forever,» Ivan says.
The Ministry of Health of Nizhny Novgorod Region has taken control of the situation, and an inspection of the quality of medical care is being conducted. Additionally, the issue of transferring and hospitalizing Ksenia at the Federal Scientific and Clinical Center for Rehabilitation and Resuscitation in Moscow is being resolved.
