Mom survives COVID-19 at Southside Hospital, meets newborn
Yanira Soriano met her son, Walter, for the first time today outside of Southside Hospital in Bay Shore around 3 p.m. She had COVID-19 pneumonia earlier this month and was put on a ventilator before she had an emergency C section. Credit: Northwell Health
Yanira Soriano held her newborn son in her arms for the first time Wednesday after spending 11 days on a ventilator at Southside Hospital in Bay Shore, an official said.
Soriano, 36, of Bay Shore, was admitted to the hospital with pneumonia from COVID-19 April 2 and put on a ventilator, said Alexandra Zendrian, a spokeswoman for Southside Hospital.
Her son, Walter, was born the very next day on April 3 after an emergency C-section was performed on Soriano who was 34-weeks pregnant, Zendrian said.
Video provided by Southside Hospital shows medical staff clapping and cheering loudly for Soriano as she is pushed in a wheelchair out the hospital and is handed her 12-day-old son by the baby’s father, who is also named Walter Soriano, officials said.
The video shows while Soriano embraces her child, someone in the crowd shouts, “felicidades!,” meaning congratulations in Spanish.
“It was nice to see such a positive outcome, to see her reunited with her son,” Zendrian said. “For the staff, it was really encouraging to see something like this. This woman was on a ventilator for 11 days.”
The infant was released Tuesday from the Cohen’s Children Medical Center in New Hyde Park, Zendrian said.
