Nursing Influencer Hailey Okula Dies After Rare Childbirth Complication

Hailey Okula, a 33-year-old nurse and social media influencer from Southern California, tragically died shortly after giving birth.

On March 29, just minutes after delivering her son Crew, Okula experienced a rare pregnancy complication called amniotic fluid embolism (AFE), according to KTLA.

“We hear the baby cry and we were excited he was finally here,” Okula's husband Matthew Okula told KTLA. “She made a comment about how big he was. I grabbed her hand and said, ‘He’s beautiful and I will see you over there in a moment.’ We were so excited and then it took such a quick turn.

“It hadn’t been a minute or two later that the doctor came in and told me they were doing CPR and her heart stopped,” he added.

Hailey Okula was an emergency room nurse who shared her fertility struggles with her nearly 470,000 Instagram followers until she became pregnant via IVF. 

In a statement shared to Instagram on April 1, Matthew Okula shared the news of his wife's death, writing, “Hailey’s strength was unparalleled. Words can’t describe how badly we wanted to be parents. After years of infertility struggles and a long, challenging IVF process, we were overjoyed to be expecting Crew.” 

He continued, “I will never forget the moment I broke down, apologizing for the toll the process would take on her. She held my face, looked into my eyes, and said, ‘We are a team, and we’ll get through this together.’ That was Hailey. A fighter. A teammate. A woman who would do anything for the people she loved.

“Though her time with us was tragically cut short, Hailey’s love for Crew was limitless, long before he entered this world. She would have been the most amazing mom,” Okula added.

Further into the statement, Okula announced his intention to honor his wife’s legacy and continue her RN New Grads business, a program aimed at supporting and providing resources for newly graduated nurses.

According to Cleveland Clinic, AFE is rare but life-threatening and occurs when amniotic fluid enters a pregnant woman's bloodstream before, during, or immediately after childbirth, causing cardiac arrest or uncontrollable bleeding from the uterus or C-section incision. The condition affects one in every 40,000 deliveries in the United States.

“It’s about 100 people a year in the United States that [amniotic fluid embolism] happens to,” Okula told KTLA. “That’s a lot of broken hearts and shattered families. Hailey would want to use this right now to see how we can figure out a way to not let this happen to other families.”

Okula, who is a Los Angeles firefighter, recalled one of the final moments he spent with his wife and said he was “just talking to her about Crew, and I just told her I’m going to be the best dad I can be for him.”

A GoFundMe page was set up to help cover funeral costs and has raised more than $385,000 toward a goal of $450,000.