'I started haemorrhaging after giving birth – this is what I saw as I was dying'

A woman who started haemorrhaging are giving birth has recounted what she saw as she lay dying in hospital.

Samantha Mangilit, 29, from Orlando, Florida, USA, suffered a near-death experience just four weeks after giving birth to her daughter Zuma in October 2024 in an emergency caesarean section.

Samantha, an artist, experienced a severe haemorrhage whilst at home with her husband that became so severe, she fainted and she was taken to hospital.

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It was during her spell in hospital that Samantha had multiple blood transfusions as well as iron transfusions and platelet and plasma whilst she dropped in and out of consciousness.

Samantha said she had the near death experience and admitted that she saw nothing at all.

She explained: “I wish I had a great story about seeing the light or meeting up with a deceased family member, but it was just dark and not scary.”

Fortunately, doctors were able to identify the cause of the blood loss which turned out to be an embolism, also known as a blockage in a blood vessel, as well as an aneurism in her right uterine artery.

In response, a Bilateral Uterine Artery Embolism was performed in a four-hour operation in order to save Samantha’s life.

She later spent a week in the intensive care unit before returning home to spend some more time with her newborn daughter.

Doctors later discovered that Samantha had a suffered a delayed postpartum haemorrhage which had been caused in part by a pseudoaneurysm which is a localised collection of blood outside of a blood vessel.

This had been caused by a leak and had been considered a delayed postpartum haemorrhage due to the close proximity of it to her caesarean.

Samantha was later informed by doctors that she was only the fifth ever person to be recorded as having this diagnosis.

Speaking about the experience nearly a year on, Samantha is thankful to be alive, but wary of what might happen if she decides to have children again in the future.

She said: “I can’t help but wonder if this can happen again to me. I want more babies, and because my case was so rare, I don’t really have answers.

“Could this happen to me again? Yes. Could this happen during a future pregnancy? Yes. Was this aneurysm brought on because of my pregnancy? Nobody knows.

“Aneurysms are spontaneous bleeds, and nothing really causes them. I was so incredibly lucky that this happened in the middle of the night when my husband was home, because if I was alone, odds are that I would have bled out and died alone on my bathroom floor.

“I know it is so cliche, but this gave me a new perspective on life. I feel like I am a lot more chill, and things really don’t bother me as much, because I know what could have been.

“So what if I’m stuck in traffic or if my phone dies – I’m alive! At 29-years-old, my husband was nearly left without a wife and my four-week-old baby was nearly left without her mommy.”