Martin Magaoa with wife Chervonne and their 6-year-old son, Tanner. Chervonne, 34, died while giving birth to their triplets in Hawaii. Photo / Supplied
Martin Magaoa with wife Chervonne and their 6-year-old son, Tanner. Chervonne, 34, died while giving birth to their triplets in Hawaii. Photo / Supplied
Tributes and donations have poured in for the mum who tragically died shortly after giving birth to triplets in Hawaii.
Chervonne Magaoa, 34, was born in Hastings but raised in Hawaii. She arrived at the Kapi'olani Medical Center for Women and Children last Thursday for her weekly appointment, when things suddenly went wrong.
After the birth of her three healthy sons Magaoa had an amniotic fluid embolism.
The condition occurs when amniotic fluid, which surrounds a baby in the uterus during pregnancy and contains products such as cells, hair, urine and secretions from the babies, enters the mother's bloodstream. It can cause serious reactions, including heart failure and uncontrollable bleeding. In New Zealand it kills about two mothers a year.
Since the Herald shared the family's story this morning over $10,000 has been raised with their GoFundMe now totalling over $46,300. The page shared a photo of Magaoa's husband Martin holding one of the tributes and the words "proud father".
This photo was shared on the fundraising page today with the caption: "A special moment when Martin gets to hold one of his triplets. Proud father." Photo / Supplied
Tributes have flooded in for the family with everything from suggestions of a community baby shower, an offer to adopt one of the triplets and a woman commiserating as she lost her own daughter, who was a mother of eight, to the same medical complication.
Magaoa's father, Bishop Hyran Smith, took her to her medical appointment last Thursday as Martin continued to work to ensure they had as much money as they could get, given the triplets' September 6 due date was just around the corner.
Speaking from the hospital yesterday, Smith told the Herald the day had started off as normal.
"Usually, the appointment takes 30 minutes. But it ended up being longer."
Doctors informed Magaoa and Smith she would need to have the babies that day. She asked her father if he could pick up her husband and then get her 6-year-old son Tanner, who was at school.
Unknown to Smith, Martin was already on his way to the hospital. Smith would miss the birth of the triplets - and the moment his daughter took her final breath.
"By 5.30pm, the babies were born. Everything was fine and then she got a complication.
"She had an amniotic fluid embolism and that was her cause of death. The doctor said statistics wise, it only happens to one in 100,000 [women], so it was a rare event."
Smith said by the time he returned to the hospital, his daughter had died.
"My daughter-in-law who got here before me, as soon as she saw me, she came jumping out of the car, crying. That's when I found out."
The family is now preparing a funeral service for their loved one, to be held on Saturday (local time).
Relatives from New Zealand are also expected, including those from Bridge Pa, Hawke's Bay, where Smith is from and where he and his late wife, Barbara Jean, and their eldest children lived for a while in the 1980s.
They are also rallying to support Magaoa's husband and his now-mammoth task of taking care of his four young sons: Tanner, Aayden, Blaise and Carson.
Smith said his son-in-law was coping okay, but the family acknowledged how difficult this will be for him and have set up a GoFundMe fundraising page to help.
"I got to talk in church today and I said: 'Well, they say it takes a village to raise a child. But with these three kids, we need more than the village."
The couple met while attending Brigham Young University, the Hawaiian campus, and married in 2007.
They had struggled to have children and were elated when they had eldest son Tanner, but wanted to give him a sibling. She underwent IVF treatment and became pregnant.
