GoFundMe For New Mom Who Wound Up In Coma At Hoboken Hospital

HOBOKEN, NJ — On a Sunday night in July, Estefania Mesa of North Bergen headed into Hoboken University Medical Center to give birth to her first child, a girl — but wound up in a coma.

What was supposed to be the happiest day of her life ended up with a lawyer trying to get more information and a family fighting to get Estefania moved elsewhere. Her partner, Eduardo Argueta, went home to take care of baby Emma alone.

On Nov. 6, a family friend posted on a GoFundMe page that Estefania has been moved out of Hoboken's hospital to a rehabilitation center, where she continues to recover.

"The road to recovery is long," the friend wrote. "However, we remain hopeful that she will receive the extensive rehab that she needs in order to some day soon be able to care for her beautiful baby girl, Emma."

The story

According to a post on the GoFundMe page, set up by friends Jennifer Romero and Daniela Solano on behalf of Estefania and Eduardo, "On Sunday night July 19, Estefania went into the hospital because she had started feeling contractions. She went in for an emergency c-section on Monday and for unclear reasons she went into cardiac arrest. The lack of oxygen to her brain has now placed her in a coma."

The friends added, "The doctors believe she may have brain damage. Unfortunately Estefania does not have health insurance. Our goal is to raise enough funds to transfer her to a hospital that has the best neurologists and team to help Estefania ... so she has the possibility to raise her beautiful baby girl Emma."

An attorney for the family said in news reports in November that a lawsuit had not yet been filed, but he was trying to get Mesa's records to find out why she ended up in a coma.

On Nov. 6, the friends posted an update: "Now after almost four months, Estefania was finally transferred to a rehabilitation center late last night and out of Hoboken Medical University, where this nightmare began."

As of Wednesday, the family had raised $63,200 toward their goal of $100,000.

A spokesman for Hoboken University Medical Center declined last week to comment on the situation.

In a video on the ordeal, posted to the GoFundMe page a month ago, Eduardo Argueta says, "Having Emma [the baby] in my life is a blessing."

Attorney Sam Davis of Teaneck told NJ.com last month that Mesa was without oxygen for more than 9 minutes and was still in a "state of diminished consciousness."

Meanwhile, Mesa’s mother Luz is helping take care of the baby as Argueta works at a Hoboken restaurant. But Luz, who is from Colombia, was told during a routine appointment with immigration officials that she may be deported in February. She married the father of her children two years ago and is awaiting her green card.

Argueta said in a news story that he had been planning to propose to Mesa when she came home from the hospital. She is currently in the Kessler Institute for Rehabilitation in Saddle Brook.

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