LITTLETON, Colo. – A Colorado father is welcoming his new baby girl to the world as he mourns the loss of his wife who died during childbirth.
Keyvonne Connie wasn’t due with their baby girl until the middle of January. But the morning of Friday, November 30th she began hemorrhaging inside their home.
“I’m like are you OK? And I see blood everywhere,” Keyvonne’s husband, Frederick Connie said.
The couple rushed to the hospital where Connie says doctors had a choice to make.
“It was either give her the surgery first and maybe save her life, but you’re going to lose your daughter. Or your daughter can be saved but there’s a chance you might lose your wife,” Frederick Connie told KDVR.
He says he chose for his wife to have the emergency C-section to save the baby.
“I’m glad I made that decision because in the end if Keyvonne probably could have survived she would have hated me for the rest of my life because I knew how she felt about kids,” he said.
Keyvonne made it through the C-section and was in recovery long enough to see pictures of the baby girl, Angelique Keyvonne Connie, who they call “Pooder” for short.
“I gave her her mom’s name. She’s going to know her mom. I’ll make sure of that,” he said.
Connie says just a few minutes later his wife’s health rapidly declined.
“Literally all of her insides just went all over the bed and the floor,” he said. “They tried [to save her] and her heart couldn’t take it. She died before they could even get her to the surgery.”
She died the same day their daughter was born.
“They got me a room in labor and delivery and I’m the only man to ever have a room in the labor and delivery and the mothers there said it was OK,” Connie said.
Pooder is battling her own health issues and is expected to spend several days to weeks in the hospital. She is eating donated breast milk and wearing clothes some of the nurses gave her as gifts.
“I’m [ignorant] on changing diapers but I’m going to learn. I’m going to be a full-time father to her,” Connie said.
Once Pooder is released from the hospital, Connie says he will plan his wife’s funeral.
“I’m financially not OK. This debt is like piling up and I have to bury my wife, my daughter coming into the world, it’s so high right now,” he said.
He told KDVR he will sell all of his possessions and sleep in his car if he has to in order to take care of Pooder.
Connie’s friends and family do not want to see that happen. His boss, Justin Collins, started a fundraiser on Facebook to help him through this difficult time.