Brittany Lewis Biography
Brittany Lewis is an American Journalist who was born and raised in Minnesota, she is happy to be just one state away from her family. Lewis joined CBS 58 as a reporter and multimedia journalist in December 2018. She is very excited to be working and living in Milwaukee. Prior to working at CBS 58, Brittany made stops in Indianapolis, the Quad Cities, and Rochester, Minnesota.
Brittany Lewis Age
Lewis’ age information will be updated soon.
Brittany Lewis Education
She graduated from DePaul University in Chicago with degrees in journalism and public relations.
Brittany Lewis Articles
Woman in need of kidney transplant posts sign on back of car
MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) — A Milwaukee County woman is need of a kidney is taking her message on the road.
Helen Totsky posted on a sign on the back of her car that reads: “Hi, my name is Helen, I need a kidney. If you do not want to donate one, that’s OK, I understand. Could you please pass this number on to someone who might? 414-466-6751.”
She also wears a shirt with her information on it and hands out cards that states she is blood Type O Positive.
Totsky says she’s been on a waiting list for more than a year.
“You’ll save a life, whether it’s my life or somebody else’s life,” she says.
Totsky is hoping that by getting a kidney transplant and getting off dialysis, she can have enough energy to get a part-time job. She said her husband also had a kidney transplant three years ago.
She says last year they spent $15,000 on medical bills.
Brittany Lewis Milwaukee CBS 58
‘How could I give up on this baby?’: Wisconsin woman risks her life to have her baby
MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) — Heather Stainback said she always wanted to have a big family. “I found out I was pregnant probably the day after we got pregnant,” she said about learning about their fifth child. She said she was about five and a half weeks into her pregnancy when she experienced bleeding.
“I had a big bleed and they basically, a week later and all the test results came back, told me everything was fine that I had a low lying placenta and just to be careful and it was normal to have a bleed,” Stainback said.
It wasn’t until her 20-week ultrasound when she learned something might be seriously wrong. “All of a sudden the tech’s face changed,” she said.
The woman said she was rushed into another room to a doctor. “She said if you don’t abort this child, either you or the baby could die, or you will die upon delivery,” said Stainback.
She was sent to Froedert & the Medical College of Wisconsin for treatment. Heather had a condition called Placenta percreta.
“Where the placenta grows through the uterus into another organ in the body,” said Meredith Cruz, a Maternal-Fetal Medicine Physician at Froedert & the Medical College of Wisconsin.
“In general, women that have prior scars on the uterus or prior c-sections are at increased risks for having that placenta grow into that abnormal or a rougher surface,” she said.
Cruz says that causes abnormal vessels to start growing into the uterus that isn’t usually there. “Then at the time of delivery those vessels become broken or sheered and can cause a very large blood loss in a short period of time,” said Cruz.
Cruz says for women with prior c-sections, it’s important to get care early on in pregnancy.
“Get early ultrasound just to know what’s going on with the placenta,” said Cruz, “And make sure that they’re seeing a high-risk specialist in addition to their regular obstetrician to make sure that they have a normal ultrasound with the placenta.”
“I think it’s critical for women to know that their obstetric history is very, very important for their obstetric future meaning that as you plan future pregnancies with increasing number of c-sections behind you, that does increase the risk of these things happening,” said Garrett Fitzgerald, a Maternal-Fetal Medicine Specialist at Froedert & the Medical College of Wisconsin.
Heather’s case was a life-threatening situation. “This case was so remarkable in that the blood vessels from the placenta were growing into numerous spaces that were abnormal,” said Fitzgerald.
“The abnormal connection that she had between the placenta and the bladder was the most severe case I’ve ever seen,” said Cruz.
Knowing that she could die, Heather carried on with her pregnancy. “God’s never given up on me ever in my life, how could I give up on this baby?” She wrote letters to her four other kids in the event that she might not make it.
“I knew that the pain that they felt later in life if I died it was because they missed me not because they necessarily remembered me,” she said. And had tough conversations with her husband.
“I said don’t ever be mad at the baby if I die,” said Stainback. On June 11, she went in for the surgery to deliver the baby, knowing she might not come home.
“I’m not scared to die, I know I’ll go to heaven. I was just scared because I wanted to live, scared because I just wanted to see how this, all of this and to meet my baby,” she said.
Cruz said there were over 30 people in Stainback’s room. “Anesthesiologists, hematologist, trauma surgeons, neurologists, maternal-fetal medicine,” she said. Stainback lost 25 liters of blood. “They thought she could hemorrhage but as soon as they opened her up, she hemorrhaged,” said Andrew Stainback.