Pregnant woman succumbs to dengue in Zamboanga del Sur

AURORA, Zamboanga del Sur—In an unfinished house in Brgy. Monte Alegre here, a mother and her child lie inside a white wooden coffin, victims of the mosquito-borne dengue disease.

The mother, 23-year-old Nonette Sabasales, died on Tuesday at the Mayor Hilarion A. Ramiro Sr. (MHARS) Medical Center in Ozamiz City after a four-day bout with the disease.

At the time of her dengue infection, Nonette was seven months pregnant, expecting a baby in September.

According to her mother, Jenelia Sabasales, Nonette first had a high fever, then experienced joint pains as rashes also showed throughout her body.

She also suffered later from diarrhea, Sabasales said.

Nonette was first rushed to the Lanao del Norte Provincial Hospital in Baroy, Lanao del Norte, then transferred to Ozamiz City upon the advice of doctors who said her pregnancy complicated her situation, Sabasales added.

Around noontime on Tuesday, Sabasales said she was informed that the baby in Nonette’s womb had died.

Last words

Nonette, the seventh of Sabasales’ eight children, died later in the evening.

Doctors then performed an abdominal delivery for the child in Nonette’s womb.

Before she breathed her last, according to Sabasales, Nonette left word that her baby be named Angelo if it’s a boy, or Michaela if it’s a girl.