The husband of a former Kansas City Chiefs cheerleader who died from postpartum sepsis is speaking out against a “one-size-fits-all” prenatal healthcare.
Krissy Anderson was rushed to the hospital last month after suffering back pain. She was in her 20th week of pregnancy with her daughter, Charlotte.
Emergency room personnel told Krissy and her husband, Clayton, they couldn’t detect a fetal heartbeat by 9 p.m. on March 16.
Hours after her unborn daughter died, Krissy spiked a high fever and began showing signs of sepsis.
Doctors performed emergency surgery to remove Krissy’s uterus to save her life.
She was placed on life support, as her internal organs began to fail one-by-one.
Clayton told ABC News, Krissy “returned on a ventilator and dialysis machine with kidney, liver, and lung failure.”
Two more surgeries followed, but the source of the infection remained elusive.
On March 19, Krissy’s condition deteriorated and she died from sepsis – a serious infection that can lead to septic shock and damage organs.
Clayton believes Krissy and his daughter would be alive if Krissy received better prenatal care for her high-risk pregnancy.
He blamed the healthcare industry’s bias against Black and Hispanic people.
“One of the issues that I guess I have with the system overall is Krystal is 40, and she’s Black, and we’d had a loss before,” he told ABC News.
Clayton said Krissy’s insurance wouldn’t pay for “high-risk maternal-fetal medicine or the high-risk maternity doctors until you get to week 14.”
“All pregnancy is high risk, especially, more so, when you’re a woman of color,” Clayton told ABC News.
The couple had also lost an unborn son in 2022 when Krissy was 38.
“Expecting somebody who’s had a loss to go four weeks in between seeing their care providers… That’s the same protocol that’s done for a 23-year-old that’s very healthy,” he said. “It can’t be a one-size-fits-all.”
High risk pregnancy can affect women of any age. But the risks increase when pregnant women are over age 35.
A GoFundMe raised over $80,000 of a $25,000 goal to pay for Krissy’s medical expenses.
