A Los Angeles firefighter is fighting to raise awareness about the rare but life-threatening birthing complication that resulted in the death of his wife, local nursing influencer Hailey Marie Okula.
Matthew Okula said he hopes his efforts help educate expecting mothers and encourage them to discuss the potential complication — amniotic fluid embolism — with their healthcare providers. But aside from raising public awareness, he said he wants Hailey’s story to prompt additional medical research.
“My hope is that we find a way to figure this out prior to it being a fatal complication that you’re running around trying to save someone’s life,” he said.
After nearly two years of in vitro fertilization treatment, the Okulas announced their pregnancy by posting a video on Hailey’s popular “Rn New Grads” Instagram account in September 2024.
The announcement was extra meaningful to the couple because “we [had] gone through a lot, [Hailey] had gone through a lot with the shots, medicine, hormones that have to go into your body to get it ready,” Okula told The Times on Friday. “To have success at the end, it was really special for us.”
The two met nearly 13 years ago and set their sights on careers they knew would help their community. She became an emergency room nurse; he, a Los Angeles Fire Department firefighter.
Okula describes his wife, known as “Nurse Hailey” on Instagram and TikTok, as a driven individual and entrepreneur whose vision of supporting graduating nurses and helping them find jobs grew into a vibrant social media hub that included interview flashcards for sale and videos of her real-life experiences in the emergency room.
Now Okula is leaning on the support of that online community — as well as his family and colleagues — after Hailey’s death from amniotic fluid embolism on March 29.
Amniotic fluid embolism is an extremely rare but life-threatening complication that has stumped healthcare providers because there aren’t any preceding risk factors, making it impossible to prevent, according to the National Organization for Rare Disorders.
Three days before her death, Hailey was 41 weeks pregnant and scheduled to be induced at Orange Coast Medical Center in Fountain Valley. Okula said they wanted to try a natural birth because they had talked about doing IVF treatment again. The couple hoped to eventually grow their family to four children.
During delivery, healthcare providers said Hailey would have to have a cesarean section. The procedure was successful and Crew, their baby boy, was born.
“I hear the baby crying and [the doctors] lift him up, we see him and Hailey says something about how big he was,” Okula said.
At the time everything seemed normal. Okula said he cut Crew’s umbilical cord and the doctor let him know Hailey was doing great and he could wait for her in the next room with the baby.
His last conversation with Hailey was to tell her how beautiful Crew was and that he would see her in the next room.
“She got a little tear on her face, so I wiped it away,” he said.
Just minutes later, the doctor came into the room and told Okula that Hailey’s heart had stopped. Okula rushed back to the delivery room in a shocked state and found “15 people doing all these different interventions to bring her back.”
Hailey was rushed to the intensive care unit, but hospital staff soon delivered the devastating news: She had died from amniotic fluid embolism, a complication Okula had never heard of before.
Amniotic fluid, which is contained within the amniotic sac, supports, cushions and protects a developing fetus.
Researchers hypothesize that the complication occurs when a pregnant woman has a severe allergic reaction to the amniotic fluid or other material such as fetal cells that enter the mother’s bloodstream — which is a normal occurrence, according to the National Organization for Rare Disorders.
Amniotic fluid embolism can lead to heart and lung failure, which causes several complications due to a lack of oxygenated blood, according to the Cleveland Clinic.
Symptoms include shortness of breath, a sudden drop in blood pressure, and bleeding issues often leading to cardiac arrest and massive hemorrhaging.
The complication is sudden and can affect both the mother and baby either before, during or immediately after labor and childbirth, experts say.
Because of its rarity and high fatality rate, the Amniotic Fluid Embolism Foundation says it’s exceptionally difficult to study. However, it’s estimated to affect 1 in 40,000 births, with a mortality rate ranging from 20% to 60%.
