SC woman released from hospital after 95 days. She gave birth, almost died from COVID

A Lancaster woman, who doctors say died at least once during a fight with COVID-19, left Prisma Health Richland hospital last week after 95 days.

Cierra Chubb gave birth to her third child, Myles, two weeks early after she was admitted to the hospital with COVID pneumonia in July.

Her husband, Jamal, posted a TikTok video of his wife leaving the hospital using a walker and aided by a hospital employee pushing an oxygen tank. She was headed to rehab, he said.

“I’m walking into this hospital for the last time to get my wife out of here,” said a buoyant Jamal Chubb.

Hospital employees clapped Cierra Chubb out of the hospital, shouting, “You go girl.”

“Let’s get her out of here. Let’s get her home,” Jamal Chubb said.

Jamal Chubb appeared at a news conference in August at the request of hospital doctors to make a plea for all people, and especially pregnant women, to be vaccinated.

Cierra Chubb was uncertain about vaccination during pregnancy because there was no conclusive data at that time about its safety.

The Chubbs’ oldest daughter tested positive for COVID after attending a sports camp, then the younger daughter, then Cierra, who was admitted to the hospital July 24.

During Jamal Chubb’s news conference, he described the emotion of sitting by his wife’s bedside holding baby Myles and watching his wife struggle to breathe.

The Chubbs married in their early 20s while he was in the Navy, and Jamal Chubb described his wife as his best friend.

He was vaccinated, and Cierra was waiting for more data before she got the vaccine. They masked while in public but generally stayed home.

Dr. Helmut Albrecht, a Prisma Health infectious disease specialist, said in the August news conference that Cierra Chubb’s case was dire. At one point she died and had to be revived. Doctors could not get enough oxygen into her blood through the ventilator. They pumped oxygen directly into her blood. Her blood pressure was nonexistent.

Albrecht said studies have recently shown no harm to pregnant women from the vaccine. During the press conference, he posted slides showing the benefits.

At the press conference, for the first time in weeks, Jamal Chubb announced his wife was awake, alert and responding to commands.

“She still has a long way to go,” he said.

This story was originally published November 1, 2021 at 9:23 AM.