{"id":89140,"date":"2026-01-17T03:33:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-17T03:33:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/89140\/"},"modified":"2026-01-17T03:33:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-17T03:33:11","slug":"new-mother-from-nepa-seeks-advocacy-after-near-death-pregnancy-with-twins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/89140\/","title":{"rendered":"New mother from NEPA seeks advocacy after near-death pregnancy with twins"},"content":{"rendered":"

After a pregnancy filled with complications that led to a bout with sepsis following a C-section delivery in late November, Forty Fort native Alyssa Meighan felt like she was going to die.<\/p>\n

She wrote goodbye notes to her newborn twins, Mason and Myles, on her phone from her emergency room bed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s when my whole body was shutting down,\u201d Meighan recalled.<\/p>\n

Her C-section wound was infected. She suffered from a severe fever. Fluid filled her lungs, causing her to cough up blood. Doctors determined her heart grew to nearly twice the size of a normal one.<\/p>\n

After several scary days, Meighan begged to be released.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was home just before Thanksgiving because I was crying to be home with my family. It was probably a bad idea, but they knew how bad I wanted to be home,\u201d Meighan said. \u201cI\u2019m still recovering, but I\u2019m happy I was home for the holidays to be there with my family and I\u2019m thankful to be alive.\u201d<\/p>\n

She credited her husband Zach, a West Wyoming native, with compassionately caring for her and the twins during the ordeal.<\/p>\n

\"Zach<\/p>\n

Zach and Alyssa Meighan hold their twin sons Myles and Mason at the Market Place at Steamtown in Scranton Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2025. (REBECCA PARTICKA\/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)\n<\/p>\n

\"Zach<\/p>\n

Zach and Alyssa Meighan hold their twin sons Myles and Mason at the Market Place at Steamtown in Scranton Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2025. (REBECCA PARTICKA\/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)\n<\/p>\n

\"Zach<\/p>\n

Zach and Alyssa Meighan hold their twin sons Myles and Mason at the Market Place at Steamtown in Scranton Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2025. (REBECCA PARTICKA\/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)\n<\/p>\n

Show Caption<\/p>\n

1 of 3<\/p>\n

Zach and Alyssa Meighan hold their twin sons Myles and Mason at the Market Place at Steamtown in Scranton Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2025. (REBECCA PARTICKA\/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)\n<\/p>\n

Expand<\/a><\/p>\n

As she continues to recover at her home in Vandling, Lackawanna County, Meighan hopes to become a \u201cpregnancy awareness\u201d advocate. She wants to educate and influence other expectant mothers, medical professionals and lawmakers.<\/p>\n

Meighan has long battled an autoimmune disease, so she was already a frequent visitor to doctors prior to learning she was pregnant in March.<\/p>\n

Soon after, she was told she was having twins, so the pregnancy would be even more high risk.<\/p>\n

Meighan said she suffered from pregnancy hypertension, which is similar to preeclampsia, a serious complication that often leads to high blood pressure, organ damage and protein build up in the urine, impacting the kidneys, liver, brain, and vision.<\/p>\n

Pregnancy hypertension doesn\u2019t directly cause sepsis, but it creates conditions that significantly increase the risk for both the mother and the newborn to develop sepsis due to inflammation, compromised immune responses, and potential organ dysfunction.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe whole pregnancy was kind of rough. It took a toll on me and my overall health,\u201d Meighan said.<\/p>\n

Meighan said mandatory testing of the heart and lungs should be part of evaluating pregnant women, especially those with autoimmune diseases. While she had non-stop doctor appointments leading up to her C-section, she said she didn\u2019t realize the internal issues she had until after giving birth.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I wasn\u2019t in the ER I wouldn\u2019t have known my heart grew twice the size it should be,\u201d Meighan said.<\/p>\n

Meighan said constant doctor appointments led to \u201ctraveling stress,\u201d especially when when appointments often lasted around 10 minutes without medical professionals understanding how she was feeling. She thinks video consultations should be streamlined.<\/p>\n

Another thing she would like to see is a pregnancy protection act like other states have, which gives new mothers and fathers more time off after child birth.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d really like to bring awareness. So many pregnant women are shut out, struggling, and have had near-death experiences similar to mine and have been dismissed,\u201d Meighan said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After a pregnancy filled with complications that led to a bout with sepsis following a C-section delivery in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":89141,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[1057,201,182,803,139,28,178,180,179,802],"class_list":["post-89140","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scranton","tag-health","tag-lackawanna-county","tag-local-news","tag-luzerne-county","tag-news","tag-pennsylvania","tag-scranton","tag-scranton-headlines","tag-scranton-news","tag-top-stories-cvc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89140","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89140"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89140\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/89141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89140"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}