A 36-year-old woman died hours after giving birth Thursday to quadruplets in a Phoenix hospital, the Associated Press reported.
Erica Morales was about seven months pregnant when she delivered the babies — three girls and a boy — at Banner Good Samaritan hospital, Nicole Todman, a family friend, told the news organization.
But she died before ever getting a chance to see the babies she and her husband had long hoped for, Todman said.
Morales initially went to the hospital for high blood pressure, according to Todman, who added she was unsure of how exactly her friend died.
The hospital would not provide that information, the AP reported.
In the wake of Morales’ death, Todman has started a GoFundMe to raise money for the family.
She said on the page that Morales and her husband, Carlos, had tried for year to have a baby. She finally became pregnant last year with the help of doctors.
Friends said Morales was born to be a mother.
“There was nothing she was more determined to do in life was to give life,” Christina Todman told CNN affiliate KNXV. “That was her determination. That’s all she wanted.”
She added, “Her purpose was to be put here to have those children, to be an angel, to guide them, to watch them.”
The goal of the GoFundMe page, which was set up by Nicole Todman, was to ease the financial worries for the family and to give Carlos “all the help he can get.”
All donations would go “to provide for the beautiful babies Erica fought so hard to have and in the end gave her life for,” she wrote.
By early Saturday afternoon — less than 24 hours after the page had been created — hundreds of people had rallied behind the family, donating more than $18,000.
As of Sunday morning, more than $52,000 had been donated. The goal of the page was to raise at least $75,000.
In addition to the GoFundMe, Todman also started a memorial page on Facebook for Erica Morales.