Well, last night my mom passed unexpectedly.
Shes been a fighter for the last 9 years and 4 months.
On March 23rd 2001 we were packed for our family vacation to head to Gulf Shores Alabama for spring break. My mom said she felt dizzy and short of breath. So we took her to the E.R. There they ran some tests and initially thought it was a heart attack. But fortuneatley there was a decent doctor on hand and he said "this is no heart attack we need to expedite her to a hospital". He contacted on of the hospitals and arranged transportation. The Helicopter was booked so they had to send here in an ambulance. None of the doctors figured she would survive the trip but somehow she did and they got her to the first hospital. There they ran some more tests and the doctors there felt that she would need a heart transplant, and that hospital was not equipped for those procedures. So they would have to transport her a mile away to a different larger hospital. Again they said they didnt feel she would survive the trip, but again she proved them wrong.
When she arrived at the next hospital her heart was barely working, and within a matter of hours it had completely stopped and the doctor had here cut open and was massaging here heat while the nurses hooked up an artificial stationary heart. Time went on through the night and things started to settle down a little bit and she got put on the transplant list as #2, because if she didnt get one in a couple of days, she wasnt going to live.
Meanwhile the doctor tried to figure out what the hell happened.
Heres a background on my mom, and why it was hard for all of them to figure out why she would have heart trouble.
She lived and worked on our farm day in and day our. She was only 38 years old at the time, she ran 3 miles per day, and she had a BS in dietetics and worked as a dietician for a few years. She never smoked, rarely drinked, and of course she at very healthy. There was no history of heart issues in the family either. All of this left them stumped. Add to that the fact that within 24hrs the heart had gone from perfect to non operational.
Eventually she was diagnosed with Spontaneous Coronary Artery Dissection at the most severe level. Only 50 some cases had ever been documented worldwide and she went on to become the 3rd person to every survive worldwide.
The doctor told us that we were fortuneate that it was this time of the year. It was starting to warm up in some parts of the country and people were getting out their motorcycles. And many of them dont wear helmets. To this day we still call them "Donorcycles" as thats how the doctor described them to us. A few days passed and a heart was sourced from indiana. A few years later on my mom was able to work up the courage to write a thank you letter to the donors family, however they never responded.
In the months following the transplant she spent half of her time in and out of the hospital, battling rejections and getting tests run 24/7 to make sure she was doing fine. The local community really stepped up and helped us out, and to add to all of this commotion our barn had collapsed a couple months prior. But i can say i did get sick of eating lasagna.haha.
Over the years since that day of April 2nd 2001 when she recieved her new heart, she encountered a few minor issues but was still around to raise us kids up. I was only 10 at the time, my sister was 6 and my brother was 4.
She had had some issues here and there, battled with some cancer as a side effect of some of here medications, as well as edema, and over the summer she had been having GI issues which was why she checked into the hospital again last night. Dad was planning on going in today for all of her tests they were going to run. He went in and saw her last night and left at 8:30, one of her sisters (my aunt) went in and saw her and left at 10:30and she was doing as fine as any other day. Then just before midnight my dad got the worst phone call of his life. A nurse had found my mom collapsed in the bathroom not breathing, with no pulse. He rushed into the hospital as they tried to revive her, but they were unsuccessful. He came home and woke the rest of us up right away at 2am to give us the news. We really didnt know what to say as we never saw it coming.
She made it to 47 years of age, and her transplant gave her an extra 9 years which let her raise us kids up to the ages of 20, 16 and 14.
She was a fighter, and never quit. She worked hard promoting organ donation and also the dairy industry. She will be missed by all of us and loved forever.
Shes been a fighter for the last 9 years and 4 months.
On March 23rd 2001 we were packed for our family vacation to head to Gulf Shores Alabama for spring break. My mom said she felt dizzy and short of breath. So we took her to the E.R. There they ran some tests and initially thought it was a heart attack. But fortuneatley there was a decent doctor on hand and he said "this is no heart attack we need to expedite her to a hospital". He contacted on of the hospitals and arranged transportation. The Helicopter was booked so they had to send here in an ambulance. None of the doctors figured she would survive the trip but somehow she did and they got her to the first hospital. There they ran some more tests and the doctors there felt that she would need a heart transplant, and that hospital was not equipped for those procedures. So they would have to transport her a mile away to a different larger hospital. Again they said they didnt feel she would survive the trip, but again she proved them wrong.
When she arrived at the next hospital her heart was barely working, and within a matter of hours it had completely stopped and the doctor had here cut open and was massaging here heat while the nurses hooked up an artificial stationary heart. Time went on through the night and things started to settle down a little bit and she got put on the transplant list as #2, because if she didnt get one in a couple of days, she wasnt going to live.
Meanwhile the doctor tried to figure out what the hell happened.
Heres a background on my mom, and why it was hard for all of them to figure out why she would have heart trouble.
She lived and worked on our farm day in and day our. She was only 38 years old at the time, she ran 3 miles per day, and she had a BS in dietetics and worked as a dietician for a few years. She never smoked, rarely drinked, and of course she at very healthy. There was no history of heart issues in the family either. All of this left them stumped. Add to that the fact that within 24hrs the heart had gone from perfect to non operational.
Eventually she was diagnosed with Spontaneous Coronary Artery Dissection at the most severe level. Only 50 some cases had ever been documented worldwide and she went on to become the 3rd person to every survive worldwide.
The doctor told us that we were fortuneate that it was this time of the year. It was starting to warm up in some parts of the country and people were getting out their motorcycles. And many of them dont wear helmets. To this day we still call them "Donorcycles" as thats how the doctor described them to us. A few days passed and a heart was sourced from indiana. A few years later on my mom was able to work up the courage to write a thank you letter to the donors family, however they never responded.
In the months following the transplant she spent half of her time in and out of the hospital, battling rejections and getting tests run 24/7 to make sure she was doing fine. The local community really stepped up and helped us out, and to add to all of this commotion our barn had collapsed a couple months prior. But i can say i did get sick of eating lasagna.haha.
Over the years since that day of April 2nd 2001 when she recieved her new heart, she encountered a few minor issues but was still around to raise us kids up. I was only 10 at the time, my sister was 6 and my brother was 4.
She had had some issues here and there, battled with some cancer as a side effect of some of here medications, as well as edema, and over the summer she had been having GI issues which was why she checked into the hospital again last night. Dad was planning on going in today for all of her tests they were going to run. He went in and saw her last night and left at 8:30, one of her sisters (my aunt) went in and saw her and left at 10:30and she was doing as fine as any other day. Then just before midnight my dad got the worst phone call of his life. A nurse had found my mom collapsed in the bathroom not breathing, with no pulse. He rushed into the hospital as they tried to revive her, but they were unsuccessful. He came home and woke the rest of us up right away at 2am to give us the news. We really didnt know what to say as we never saw it coming.
She made it to 47 years of age, and her transplant gave her an extra 9 years which let her raise us kids up to the ages of 20, 16 and 14.
She was a fighter, and never quit. She worked hard promoting organ donation and also the dairy industry. She will be missed by all of us and loved forever.
