ICU nurse starts baby registry for 22-year-old mom battling COVID-19
By Emma Claybrook
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FORT SMITH, Arkansas (KHBS) — Eric Robison and his wife, Emily, both tested positive for COVID-19 in August.
Eric recovered, but Emily is still fighting to meet her daughter, Carmen.
“That night was a pretty bad night, because they told me that she probably wouldn’t make it through the surgery. Being told that is not something that you’re supposed to hear when you’re 23 years old, that your wife is not going to make it,” Robison said.
Carmen came into the world at just 29 weeks in an emergency C-section to save both mom and baby.
“You don’t think when you’re young that something can put you down like this, but it can happen if you don’t take it seriously,” Robison said.
When Carmen was born, Emily’s ICU nurse, Ashlee Schwartz, wanted to send the family some baby gifts. She said she couldn’t find a registry online.
“I asked Eric where they were registered, and he said, ‘What is a registry?’ and I went, oh boy. I asked him what he had for the baby already, and he said, ‘Just clothes,’ and I said, ‘You will need more than just clothes,'” Schwartz said.
Schwartz started a registry for the Robison family and donations quickly started pouring in from other nurses and people in the community, filling up her garage.
“For Eric, it’s truly a nightmare waking up every day and wondering if his wife will make it through the day,” Schwartz said.
As Eric gets ready to bring Carmen home from the hospital, he is also hoping his wife will get to come home, too.
“That’s all I want her to do is come home. Carmen deserves to have a mom. I don’t want to look in the future and show her pictures of what her mom looked like. I want to show her while her mom is still there,” Robison said.
Eric said both he and Emily were not vaccinated for COVID-19 when they got sick, but he plans to get vaccinated soon.
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