UAE mother who gave birth in coma faces worsening health, lung transplant urgency
“I can walk a total of 10 steps,” says Amal Othman, the Emirati woman who opened her eyes after a month in a coma only to discover she had delivered in that time, as she now contends with failing health and refusals for lung transplant upon hospitalization.
Months after her story attracted wide attention, Amal says her health has sharply deteriorated, with an inability to perform even the most rudimentary of day-to-day activities. “Anything I do makes me lose oxygen. Even speaking feels a struggle,” she said.
Medical reports, including a recent update from Othman’s doctor, confirm significant and progressive lung damage of acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) caused by viral pneumonia during pregnancy. The condition later progressed to pulmonary fibrosis, which has greatly impaired her lung function.
“At this point I’m running on probably a quarter of a lung,” Amal said, adding that her oxygen levels plummet with even the little movement she has.
Doctors have advised that she be evaluated for a lung transplant — now seen as her only real long-term option. But the process is not straightforward and can’t happen right away.
Multiple medical problems must first be stabilised, said her sister, a nurse who has been closely involved in her care. “The fibrosis in her lungs has progressed to an advanced stage and is now affecting her heart,” she said. “She has a strain on her heart because of the lungs, and she also has complications that will need to be resolved before transplant.”
Among the most serious dangers are blood clots around the lungs, which could threaten a transplanted organ if untreated. “There are clots in vessels near the lungs. If a transplant is performed without addressing them, the new lung could be harmed,” her sister said.
Oh, and Amal also had major abdominal surgery during her acute illness; he took out a piece of her bowel, which now has to go to an opening in her abdomen. Doctors say this also needs to be surgically corrected before she can safely receive a transplant.
“The bowel connection has to be fixed first,” her sister said. “But even that is complex because of her medical history and the risks.”
Amal says these complications have also left her with permanent physical limitations. She cannot lie comfortably, has difficulty eating and sleeping normally and needs help with everyday tasks.
It affects her as a mother too. She can’t carry or even hold her youngest daughter, the child she gave birth to while in a coma.
“I can’t put her on my lap because of the surgery in my abdomen,” she said.
Amal has had some 40 surgeries since she fell critically ill in early 2024, many of them while she was still and after she was discharged from intensive care. She was on life support for months, including extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO), one machine that oxygenates blood outside the body when the lungs can no longer work.
Out of treatment options, she was referred to Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi for advanced care, where she spent almost a year before being discharged.
She survived the ordeal and eventually regained consciousness, but Amal says her condition did not improve as hoped.
“I figured once I woke up, things would be better,” she said. “But it’s getting harder.”
Doctors have put her on an intense treatment regimen of about 26 medications a day to manage her lungs, heart function, blood circulation and other complications.
Hers is a treatment that is made even more complex by high medical costs and limitations imposed by insurance — both of which have impeded her ability to access specialised care, medications and follow-up at advanced centres consistently. The irregularities are just a few of the difficult challenges that she faces as she needs very highly specialised multi-disciplinary intervention before she can even be considered for transplant.
Right now, though, her short-term future hinges on whether doctors can stabilize her condition enough to make a lung transplant an option. She is undergoing evaluation to decide how to proceed. “I just want to breathe normally again,” she added. “That’s all.”
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