Choosing to be Grateful
/In the face of an unthinkable tragedy, Autumn Phelps is grateful to be here and now puts her energy toward helping others
By Sarah Vammen
Grief is like a fingerprint—uniquely held, felt, and expressed by each individual person. Everyone has a different experience with grief. For Autumn Phelps, a tremendous and tragic loss is driving her to help others.
Autumn, a lifelong Texarkana resident, graduated from Texas High School in 2007. She and her husband, Kyle, have been married since 2011. Together, they have one daughter, Macie-Sue, a second-grader at Red Lick Elementary School. “Macie-Sue is just the most amazing thing I’ve ever done,” Autumn said. “She’s hilarious, spunky, and tells it like it is.” Though Macie-Sue is Autumn’s whole world, she always dreamed of having more children.
“That story really starts in March of 2015 when I gave birth to my daughter Macie-Sue via C-section,” Autumn explained. Because it was a vertical incision, Autumn knew any future pregnancies would require an early delivery to prevent uterine rupture.
However, after several years of trying, Autumn and Kyle struggled to conceive more children. Autumn then directed her attention to her health. “I was the heaviest I had ever been,” Autumn said. “I was not even able to grocery shop without my whole body hurting and being out of breath.” This led her to undergo weight loss surgery in August of 2021. Since her surgery, Autumn has lost 250 pounds and more than 90 inches. Though the journey was a difficult one, it gave Autumn a new lease on life and created new possibilities for her family. “Now my beautiful family and I do all things together,” Autumn said. “It’s just been life-changing. I can’t even fathom the thought of gaining the weight back.”
Kyle, Macie-Sue, and Autumn Phelps
Prioritizing her health had another exciting benefit for Autumn. Finally, after trying for seven years, Autumn found out she was pregnant on August 28th, 2022. On October 10th, she received even better news: she was pregnant with twins. “The excitement was unreal,” Autumn said. “My family was finally growing.”
As Autumn’s pregnancy progressed, she prepared for the likelihood of delivering the twins about eight weeks early. “We knew, with my past C-section, that this was going to be tricky because we would have to deliver early, and with twins, you have to deliver early already,” Autumn explained. Despite that possibility, Autumn’s pregnancy was picture perfect. Both her babies were healthy and growing, and she felt great. It was a dream come true.
On April 16th, 2023, everything changed. Autumn began experiencing sharp stomach pains and was immediately rushed to the labor and delivery floor of an area hospital. After several hours of waiting and worrying, Autumn’s pain was dismissed as being related to loose skin from her 250-pound weight loss. “I was sent home with no further inspection, instruction, or care,” Autumn said. “That much pain, this far along in pregnancy, isn’t normal.”
The next day started smoothly. Autumn had her weekly ultrasound and received a clean bill of health for both her and the babies. Unfortunately, the pain returned during a family dinner at Outback Steakhouse. This time it was worse. Autumn’s instincts kicked in, and she knew she was in real trouble. Shortly after they made it home, Autumn’s uterus ruptured.
“I frantically called 911. Firefighters made it to me first, but there was only so much they could do,” Autumn said. When the ambulance arrived, Autumn was bleeding out, her blood pressure was plummeting, and she was losing consciousness. Autumn was dying.
Once she was at the hospital, Autumn was again forced to wait. Because the massive blood loss was making her vision blurry and causing her to slur her words, medical personnel assumed she was on drugs and thus delayed treating her. After an hour of waiting, Autumn and Kyle received the devastating news that both babies had passed away when Autumn’s uterus ruptured. Now the race was on to save Autumn’s life, and she was rushed to surgery.
Autumn woke up the next morning, shocked to discover that she was on a ventilator and had undergone a hysterectomy. She was lucky to be alive but hadn’t forgotten what happened to her babies. “Once I could sit up and move around, the saddest moment of my life happened,” Autumn said. “My daughter Hunter Blakely and my son, Stetson Nash, were rolled into my room. They were perfect. It made no sense to me why they weren’t alive.” Now, Autumn faced the agonizing process of planning a funeral instead of bringing her babies home.
Though Autumn’s experience was heart-wrenching and preventable, Autumn does have a great deal of gratitude for a few doctors and nurses she encountered. “Dr. Thomas Wilson, the surgeon called in to save my life, was my biggest advocate,” Autumn said. “As soon as he finished my surgery, he was demanding accountability from my medical team and couldn’t believe this had been allowed to happen to me. I owe my life to him and my anesthesiologist, Yessica.” Autumn is also grateful for the care of Anna Beth Steed, who was present at Autumn’s weekly appointments during pregnancy and dressed her babies while Autumn was intubated, as well as her ICU nurse Kamron Scott and her postpartum nurses Kim, Sierra, Kaylea, and Amy.
Despite the unthinkable tragedy she endured, Autumn has never stopped thinking of others. Driven by her desire to prevent another family from facing similar pain, Autumn is taking action. “I wanted something to keep me busy this first year after losing the babies—something positive to focus on,” Autumn said. Because Autumn’s life was saved by the 7.5 pints of blood she received during her life-saving surgery, she will host a community-wide blood drive for the twins’ first birthday.
Hunter Blakely Phelps, 5 lbs, 6 oz and 19 inches long; Stetson Nash Phelps, 8 lbs, 1 oz and 21 inches long.
“I didn’t know what I wanted the event to be at first, besides that I wanted people to donate blood. Without blood, my daughter wouldn’t have a mom,” Autumn said. “But, after thinking about it, I decided to do a whole festival.”
The first annual Hunter and Stetson Memorial Scholarship Blood Drive will be held on April 20th, 2024, at 12 p.m. at the Training Station Child Development Center. In addition to a blood drive, the event will feature local vendors, face painting, bounce houses from TXK Bouncers, and food from the Dre’Licious Dishes food truck. “We will be donating the money received during the event to a local mom or expecting mom graduating from high school,” Autumn said.
For Autumn, this is a productive and impactful way to channel the grief she will always have. She hopes to make a difference in the community, and particularly in maternal care. “I will always be sad, but this event is something positive I can do for others,” she said. “I hope that, by hosting this event and putting my story out there, other people will be able to come forward with their stories.”
Beyond planning the Hunter and Stetson Memorial Scholarship Blood Drive, Autumn, Kyle, and Macie-Sue are focusing on healing and moving forward. “This could have easily torn us apart, but instead, it is bringing us closer together,” Autumn said. “We are choosing to be grateful that Kyle still has his wife, and Macie-Sue still has her mom.”
If you are interested in event sponsorship, attending as a vendor, or nominating a high school senior who is a mother or expecting mother, please email AutumnPhelps22@gmail.com.
