A Middletown mother who gave birth while in a COVID-19 coma is sharing her story ahead of her first Mother's Day.
Serena Torres, 29, almost died from the virus' effects at the Westchester Medical Center.
Despite her age and mild asthma, she had one of the most severe cases doctors said they have seen.
She contracted COVID-19 back in October when she was six months pregnant - and her body immediately began to shut down.
She was placed in a medically induced coma, and doctors decided her first born had to be removed via an emergency C-section.
Baby Alessandra was brought into the world months before her due date and fought for her life in the NICU for weeks.
All the while, her mother, who was in the medically induced coma, battled heart and kidney failure and had all of her toes amputated.
Torres doesn't remember waking up from her coma, but her husband tells her she immediately asked about Alessandra.
Although she wanted to, she couldn't hold Alessandra for the first four months of her life because she was too sick.
When they met, she says it was almost indescribable.
"I could not stop crying because it was, finally all those emotions, just released at that one moment in time. It was the best moment of my life," she says.
Torres was finally discharged from the hospital in February.
She says for Mother's Day they are they'll be having a great meal and will be taking a million photos to document the first of many Mother's Days.