Mom-to-be had 2 signs of rare complication: ‘Everything kept getting worse’

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Candice Davis had been pleasantly surprised by the ease of her first pregnancy. Her checkups were always clear, and she had few symptoms — until June 14, 2025, 11 days before her due date.

The day started normally, but as the hours passed, Davis began to feel nauseous while sitting by her pool. Eventually, it shifted to upper abdominal pain. Her husband was insistent that she go to the hospital. Davis resisted at first. She worked as a recruiter for an OB-GYN, and felt she would know if something was seriously wrong. But when her friend and OB-GYN Dr. Susan Passarella also urged her to go to the ER, she gave in.

At the obstetric emergency department at Baptist Hospital in Pensacola, Florida, tests showed Davis’ blood pressure was elevated. Her doctors decided to keep her overnight. Then things escalated quickly.

Davis’ pain increased sharply. Her blood pressure kept rising. Her liver enzymes skyrocketed. Within two hours of her arrival, her care team wanted to induce labor. Davis had hoped to have a natural birth. But “everything kept getting worse,” she said, and the decision was made to deliver her baby via cesarean section.

“And thank goodness we did,” Davis said. “I was in a lot of pain. They ended up giving me an epidural to help with the pain in the upper abdomen, which did not even touch it. I just remember I was scared. I physically knew that I could not birth my son naturally. I couldn’t even sit up. I was scared, but there was just so much going on.”

A C-section and critical complications

Davis was experiencing HELLP syndrome, a rare pregnancy condition that is related to preeclampsia. It affects the liver and can cause rapid bleeding. While preeclampsia occurs in about 5% to 8% of pregnancies, only about 0.01% to 0.06% of cases develop into HELLP syndrome, Passarella said. Typically, patients recover from the condition after delivering.

Davis’ son was safely delivered via C-section, but it turned out his body had been putting pressure on a 17-centimeter injury in her liver. When he was delivered, the organ started to bleed — and didn’t stop.

“When they were getting my son out, they said, ‘Oh, there’s not blood. This is good,'” Davis said. “And within seconds, it was, ‘Oh, there’s blood, there’s a lot of blood.’ The anesthesiologist came in and put a mask over my face, and said, ‘OK, we’ve got to put you out now.'”

Davis’ team had been prepared for this outcome because of her elevated liver enzymes. A surgeon was on hand, and the C-section had been performed in such a way that surgeons could reach her liver if necessary.

But the bleeding wouldn’t stop. Davis became too unstable for further surgery, forcing doctors to pack her body with sterile materials and wait overnight for her to regain some strength. She couldn’t breathe on her own. Passarella, who was receiving updates through Davis’ husband, feared her friend would never wake up.

“It was just one thing after another,” said Passarella, who has treated patients with HELLP syndrome. “He asked me, ‘Is she going to survive this?’ I didn’t know what was going to happen.”

“Something I’ll never forget”

After about 24 hours, doctors were able to stop Davis’ bleeding. The next day, she was able to breathe on her own and began to regain consciousness. But her first memory of the ordeal came two days later, when her then-4-day-old son was placed on her chest in the intensive care unit.  

“My blood pressure was still elevated, and Camden, my son, he was crying,” Davis recalled. “I heard my sister say, ‘Oh look, he stopped crying when he got on her chest, and her blood pressure immediately started decreasing.’ That’s something I’ll never forget.”

Davis still wasn’t out of the woods. Blood clots had formed in her left hand. She couldn’t take blood thinners because of the risk of her liver bleeding again. Doctors tried topical treatments and even a hyperbaric oxygen chamber, but Davis wound up losing her thumb and parts of her other four fingers on her left hand.

In the following weeks, Davis underwent six surgeries to remove the damaged tissue. The procedures were followed by intensive therapy to relearn how to use her hand.

Adjusting to the amputations while caring for a newborn was taxing, she said, even with the support of her husband and their extended family.

“Everything I had planned just went out the window,” she said. “It was a whole process in terms of what changed from what I thought was going to happen. I couldn’t change his diaper by myself. I had to get help feeding him. I couldn’t change his clothes.” 

Finding a new way forward

One year after her son’s birth, Davis and her family have found a new normal. She has surprised herself and her therapeutic team with the speed of her recovery, she said. She can do “all the things,” including caring for her son independently. Adaptive devices like a prosthetic thumb have helped her adjust at work and in the gym.

Her family spent the summer relaxing on the beach, she said. They considered taking a trip to celebrate her son’s first birthday, but decided instead to take it easy “compared to what we had last year,” Davis joked. She plans to compete in a relay race with Passarella in the fall. 

Davis said she hopes her experience will encourage others to pay attention to their bodies during pregnancy.

“You can have a good pregnancy, but don’t ever take that for granted,” she said. “I think it’s just really important for women to listen to their bodies, and if something doesn’t feel right, figure that out. Go get checked. Don’t just take for granted that everything is fine and it’s just a pregnancy symptom.”