Photo courtesy of Reegan Keen.
Regan Keen kisses her baby, Dawson. Keen received a false positive COVID-19 test after her delivery and wants to share her story in hopes of helping other new moms.
Having a baby can be stressful enough, but being pregnant and having a baby during a global pandemic is another story. Chelsea resident Regan Keen had an unexpected experience when she was admitted to the hospital for the birth of her second son.
“I thought [COVID-19] would be passed by the time I had a baby,” Keen said. “We thought it would be two weeks of quarantine and then it would be over. We self-quarantined for three months and only went to the hospital for my OB appointments. We thought we were going to be safe. We were super careful.”
Keen’s due date was May 30, but because she hadn’t dilated, the plan was to have a scheduled cesarean section May 27. However, she and her husband Thomas headed to the hospital three days earlier.
Keen was administered a COVID-19 test around 11 a.m. May 24. Baby Dawson arrived at 6 p.m. Her test results were supposed to comeback before her delivery, but she progressed faster than expected. Two hours later, her test results came back. She was positive.
The hospital staff recommended separating her from the baby for at least two weeks, but Keen told them no. She had already been holding and feeding him and did not want him to be taken away from her.
“I got a call from the hospital, and they recommended putting Dawson in the NICU for two weeks and separating me from my son,” Keen said. “I was completely asymptomatic. I was told I could go against hospital policy, but they would have to mark that’s what I was doing, so I told her I didn’t want to be separated from my son.”
When the nurses returned to her room a few hours later, they were dressed out in full gowns and face shields. Keen said they told her not to hold him unless she was feeding him and to wear a mask consistently. This was a lot for the new mom to take in.
“I kind of broke down at one point, because everyone was acting like I had leprosy,” she said. “It was terrifying to have to make all these decisions in a ten-minute conversation on the phone. My fear was am I putting him in danger, even though he’s already been with me and also what is best for him?”
Keen said she heard the test had a 30% false positive rate. She immediately began asking if they would test her again. Every time she asked, they told her to get in touch with her obstetrician. Meanwhile, Dawson was tested at 24 hours old, and his results came back negative. They were told they wouldn’t release Dawson until the 48-hour mark, and for the next two days, they could not leave the room.
Before leaving the hospital, Keen was finally given a second test, at the request of her OB. She was discharged May 26, and the next day, her results came back negative. She asked what that meant and was told because she was asymptomatic and the second test was negative, the first test would be considered a false positive.
Even so, the pediatrician wouldn’t allow Keen to attend Dawson’s first appointment. She was told it’s not considered a false positive until there are two negative tests.
“I didn’t get to go, which I took really hard,” she said. “The nurse said they’d call and put me on speaker, but it was such a fast appointment, I just wasn’t there at all. After the appointment I immediately called Walgreens and booked an appointment for a third test. I went at 10 a.m. the next morning and got my results back in two hours: negative.”
Keen said the roller coaster ride finally ended at that point. She still can’t believe or understand why she tested positive while in the hospital.
“It was crazy to think when we hit the two week postpartum mark that’s when I would have been getting him back,” she said.
After her experience, Keen said she would encourage new moms who test positive to definitely push for a retest and question things.
“So much about this disease is unknown, and I felt I wanted to give any information I could give other moms going through this, because you have to make a lot of hard decisions on the fly. It could have turned out very differently, but I’m thankful it happened it turned out the way it did.”
