A mum who hit headlines in Brazil after she gave birth to surprise triplets thinking she was pregnant with twins has died of COVID-19 shortly after their dad was killed in a car crash.

Her tragic death from COVID-19 comes just one week after her younger sister succumbed to the same fate and five months after her husband died in the car crash – leaving the three little boys orphaned.

Ana Paula Faria, 37, passed away from complications due to COVID-19 at the Santa Casa de Votuporanga hospital in the Brazilian municipality of the same name in the early hours of 16th March.

The resident of the nearby municipality of Parisi first developed COVID-19 symptoms last week, but initially tested negative for the virus.

She repeated the test on 12th March and was admitted to hospital after testing positive. Her condition worsened and she was admitted to intensive care the following day.

She sadly passed away due to unspecified complications from the virus in the early hours of 16th March.

Ana Paula’s death came just one week after that of her sister, Karina Angelica Faria, 33, who also succumbed to the virus.

Karina was interned at the Parisi Healthcare Unit and required intubation due to a worsening of her condition.

However, no ventilator was available at the centre, and the hospital in nearby Votuporanga, where her older sister was later admitted, was at full capacity at the time.

Ana Paula had previously hit national headlines after she was admitted to the same hospital in Votuporanga to give birth to twins in 2016.

During the childbirth, she learnt from the medical team that she was actually pregnant with triplets, after one of the babies had failed to show up on her previous ultrasound scans.

She gave birth to the triplets in the space of five minutes.

Radiologist Alexandre Henrique de Parma said at the time: “In general, cases like this are not common, but they can happen, due to the technical limitations of the examination in larger patients, where even the image of the foetus can be confused.”

Ana Paula leaves behind her five-year-old triplet sons and another 18-year-old son. Her husband, the boys’ father, had died in a car accident five months ago.

The children are now being cared for by their grandparents.

The ViralTab page is created by and dedicated to professional, independent freelance journalists. It is a place for us to showcase our work. When our news is sold to our media partners, we will include the link here.