Texas Mom Lost Twins After Hit-and-Run and Faced Heart Failure. But She Just Celebrated New Daughter's Birthday (Exclusive)

After a car crash a decade ago, Karla Weeden went into premature labor and both of her newborn twins died the day they were born. Months later, the grieving mom was diagnosed with heart failure and told she could never have children — because a pregnancy could kill her.

But Weeden's health has since improved and she was able to give birth to a healthy baby girl. The new mom, who lives in Houston and works as a homeowners association community manager, celebrated her daughter’s first birthday on July 19.

“This is what we prayed for. This is what we asked for,” Weeden, 36, tells PEOPLE. “I'm just so grateful.”

On Oct. 11, 2014 Weeden was driving home from the grocery store when, she says, a hit-and-run driver ran a red light and T-boned her car.

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At the time, Weeden was 23 weeks and four days pregnant with twins. She spent the night in the hospital and then was sent home on bedrest, she says.

Two days later, on Oct. 13, she didn’t feel right so she went back to the hospital in labor, she recalls.

It was there that she gave birth to her son, Chase Michael, whom she got to hold in the hours before his twin sister, Autumn Rose, was born. Neither infant survived the night.

“I held both of them that evening until they passed,” Weeden says.

Months later, in January 2015, she felt like she couldn’t breathe and realized she'd been retaining fluid — unusual symptoms that she had missed while in a fog of depression.

And then that January, she drove herself to the hospital where she was diagnosed with heart failure, which she believes is connected to her being postpartum. Doctors also said her heart was overworked and overlarge.

“The doctors made it very clear that I was to not get pregnant [again]. It would kill me. My heart was too weak,” she says. “It wasn't safe for me to be pregnant.”

But medical intervention helped her change her life, she says: A defibrillator was surgically implanted, she had gastric sleeve surgery and switched to a plant-based diet.

She lost about 100 pounds, fell in love and got married to Javaris Weeden, 38, whom she first met online. The two were wed on Aug. 18, 2018.

Part of their evolving relationship included facing her past tragedy. (Her twins were with a previous relationship.)

During pre-marital counseling, the couple grieved the idea of never having children, Karla says.

“That was tough because I didn't want my husband not to have a child because I knew he desired one so desperately,” she says. “He stated his love for me outweighed that. He loved me more than he loved the idea of having a baby and that he was very confident that when the time was right, God would make it happen."

Karla was far from sure: "I didn't have any confidence. I'm like, 'Dude, I've been having heart failure for years now. This isn't going away.’ ”

But gradually, thanks in part to her treatments and changing lifestyle, she started needing fewer heart medications, she says.

Seven years after being diagnosed with heart failure, her cardiologist no longer saw any concerning signs of the condition, she says — remembering now how "we cried for joy. I said, ‘We just got to have a little faith. Just a little.' ”

Around Thanksgiving 2022, she and her husband, who works in a warehouse, learned they were pregnant with their daughter. Her due date was Aug. 18, their wedding anniversary.

In April, when Karla was nearly 24 weeks pregnant, she was diagnosed with Bell's palsy, a facial disorder, and preeclampsia and hospitalized at Texas Children’s Hospital.

Her daughter, Kapri, was born July 19, 2023, at 11:19 p.m., weighing 5 pounds, 5 ounces.

Karla's doctors told her she had reached the end of her long journey.

“We made it,” she says.

There was one more bump, however: A day after going home from the hospital, Karla's blood pressure spiked and she ended up back in the hospital with post-eclampsia, she says.

“She had the most optimistic, positive attitude,” says Dr. Katherine Salciccioli, a cardiologist at Texas Children’s Hospital, who cared for Karla. “She just always wanted to make the best of things and was willing to listen and work with the team and do whatever she needed to do to take care of herself and her baby."

"That positive attitude was so inspiring to the rest of the team throughout her entire pregnancy and afterwards," Salciccioli says.

Karla only stayed in the hospital a couple of days before going home to her daughter.

“Life has been wonderful ever since,” she says. “This has been a joy, and it's been my biggest blessing.”

Her daughter is happy and healthy; her husband does all the night feeds.

“She's just a sweet little girl and she's so cuddly and so lovable,” Karla says of little Kapri.

“She looks at you and she just smiles. She's always laughing.”

And while Karla says she still struggles with her heart, she is confident she'll be able to maintain her health in the long term.

“It is absolutely worth it. I'm not in danger of dying. The heart failure where I'm at is perfectly manageable,” she says. “I've been here before — and if I did it before, I can do it again. If I can survive this, I can survive anything.”