An emergency room nurse and online influencer, the wife of a Los Angeles Fire Department firefighter, died after giving birth to her son, her husband shared in social media posts.
Matthew Okula confirms on April 1 Instagram The post says his wife, Hailey Marie Okula, died of complications of childbirth. The baby boy named Crew survived.
Hailey is known as “Nurse Hailey” on Instagram and has over 440,000 followers on social media platforms. She launched a “New Graduate” program to help newly graduated nurses.
“Words cannot convey the depth of the loss I feel,” he wrote. “Hailey is more than I have dreamed of in my wife and partner. She is gorgeous, smart, hardworking, passionate, trustworthy, and most importantly, incredible loyalty. She has stood by me the hardest in nearly 13 years, loving me endlessly, even if I feel that the kind of person I love is everything to me. She is everything to me.”
Hailey struggled with infertility and went through a challenging IVF program before announcing her pregnancy in September.
“Hailey faces every obstacle with so much courage and love, even though her body has gone through a lot, she has never wavered.” “I will never forget the moment I fell, apologizing for the loss caused by the process. She held my face, looked into my eyes and said, ‘We are a team and we will be through this together.’ That was a fighter.
The Los Angeles Fire Department, where Matthew was an engineer, also paid tribute to Haley.
“On March 29, 2025, Mrs. Hailey Okula, the wife of LAFD engineer Matthew Okula, died tragically during childbirth.” LAFD Social Media Posts. The agency added that they are “providing support to engineer Okula and his newborn crew during this unimaginable difficult time.”
Matthew Okula tells KTTV The Haley fell into cardiac arrest after giving birth to her son.
