Karla Weeden went into premature labor and lost both of her newborn twins after a vehicle accident a decade ago. For Weeden, a Houston resident and community manager for a homeowners association, things only seemed to grow worse after she was told she couldn’t have children because being pregnant may kill her since she had heart failure.
But her condition significantly improved and she had a baby girl. Weeden celebrated her healthy baby girl’s one-year birthday in July.
The 36-year-old mother told People, “This is what we prayed for. This is what we asked for. I’m just so grateful.”
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She recounted that in 2014, as she was going home from the grocery store, a hit-and-run driver ran a red light and side-swiped her car. Weeden was 23 weeks and four days pregnant with twins. According to her, she spent the night in the hospital before being sent home on bed rest.
She went back to the hospital in labor two days after the accident as she wasn’t feeling unwell. She gave birth to her son, Chase Michael, whom she got to hug in the hours before the birth of his twin sister, Autumn Rose. But none of the babies made it through the night.
Then, in January 2015, she felt like she couldn’t breathe and learned she’d been retaining fluid – uncommon symptoms she had overlooked while in a state of despair. After visiting the hospital, she was informed that she had heart failure, which she believes is related to her recent delivery. Doctors also reported that her heart was overworked and enlarged.
She recounted, “The doctors made it very clear that I was to not get pregnant [again]. It would kill me. My heart was too weak. It wasn’t safe for me to be pregnant.”
She did, however, lose nearly 100 pounds after undergoing a gastric sleeve operation, a surgical defibrillator implantation, and a plant-based diet change that helped improve her recovery.
While recovering, she met and married the father of her one-year-old daughter, Javaris Weeden, 38, whom she met online. During their premarital counseling, the couple lamented the idea of never having children, but Weeden said Javaris reassured her and “stated his love for me outweighed that. He loved me more than he loved the idea of having a baby and that he was very confident that when the time was right, God would make it happen.” She was not as confident as he was, though.
Nonetheless, seven years after being diagnosed with heart failure, her cardiologist no longer observed any alarming signs of the disease. She said, “We cried for joy. I said, ‘We just got to have a little faith. Just a little.'”
She and her spouse soon discovered that she was expecting around Thanksgiving 2022, and they also discovered that August 18 was her due date—their wedding anniversary.
When Weeden was nearly 24 weeks pregnant, she was diagnosed with Bell’s palsy and preeclampsia and admitted to Texas Children’s Hospital. On July 19, 2023, she gave birth to her daughter Kapri. However, Weeden’s blood pressure soared the day after, and she ended up returning to the hospital with post-eclampsia.
This time, she was only in the hospital for a few days before returning home to her kid, and she said, “Life has been wonderful ever since. This has been a joy, and it’s been my biggest blessing.”
Even though Weeden acknowledges that she still has heart issues, she is positive that she will be able to sustain her health over time.
She declared, “It is absolutely worth it. I’m not in danger of dying. The heart failure where I’m at is perfectly manageable. I’ve been here before — and if I did it before, I can do it again. If I can survive this, I can survive anything.”
