Matthew Okula, husband of late nursing influencer Hailey Okula, shares the 'bittersweet' reality of raising five-month-old son Crew alone
The husband of a star who died giving birth to their first child has opened up about life with his five-month-old son and without his wife.
Matthew Okula recently shared a video on Instagram, depicting the raw reality of what life looks like for him and his baby son Crew as he continues to navigate life without his wife Hailey.
Hailey Okula died in March, minutes after she gave birth to her much longed-for son Crew, who she and Matthew had conceived through IVF. Matthew announced the news of his wife’s sudden death via her Instagram. He wrote: “It is with the heaviest of hearts that I share the devastating news of the unexpected passing of my beautiful wife, Hailey Marie Okula, due to complications from childbirth. Words cannot convey the depth of the loss I feel. Hailey was more than I could have ever dreamed of in a wife and partner."
Hailey, aged 33, died shortly after giving birth to baby Crew on Saturday March 29. Matthew later revealed Hailey’s official cause of death and said that, minutes after their first son was born via C-Section, his wife went into cardiac arrest after suffering an amniotic fluid embolism (AFE). He told Fox 11 Los Angeles: “There’s no treatment. There’s no way of [diagnosing] it."
On Wednesday (August 27), Matthew posted a video of himself in tears as he tried to look after his son. In a clip taken from a baby camera monitor in Crew's room, Matthew can be seen rocking his baby boy in the dark and wiping away tears. Over the video, John Mayer's song "You're Gonna Live Forever in Me" plays as Matthew attempts to soothe his son.
In the caption of the post, which was posted jointly to his and Hailey's RN New Grads Instagram account, he wrote: "We’re coming up on 5 months without Hailey. I promised I’d be transparent and share the good and the bad, so here it is. Some nights I’m crying in the dark, wishing she could be here to hold him, to see him, to live the life she worked so hard for. It’s all so bittersweet. We miss and love you, Hailey."
In an interview with People, Matthew previously said it's still hard for him to understand how he and Hailey were able to choose Crew's sex but they were unable to protect her from an AFE. He also shared the ways in which he is raising Crew to be the little boy that Hailey would have wanted him to be. Over the course of her fertility journey, the couple spoke regularly about their plans for their future. Matthew said he intends to follow that plan.
"I'm still going to raise him the same way that we talked about raising him," he told the publicaiton. "It's hard. It almost would be easier if we didn't talk about it because then I could just say, 'This is how I'm doing it.' But she was going to be such a good mom. She was ready, and we talked about a lot of it."
Hailey was ER nurse and had 420, 000 followers on Instagram, where she was known simply as nurse Hailey. She had launched her RN New Grads program in 2019 to support newly graduated nurses. On the website it states that it offers "educational resources, interview help.” Matthew previously confirmed on Instagram that the program will continue in his wife’s honour.
After Hailey’s death, a GoFundMe page was set up to help Matthew and baby Crew. The page has now raised more than $450,000. They money will be used to pay for household bills and utilities, along with future baby supplies and childcare for Crew.