- Joined
- Oct 18, 2007
- Messages
- 3,018
My family needs all the smoke and prayers we can get.
My mother, who is an emphysema sufferer, has been temporarily in a nursing home for rehab to ween her off a respirator. She was brought to the hospital on Saturday suffering from accute pneumonia. Emergency took care of her and sent her up to a monitoring wing in the hospital (a not-quite-ICU). She's hooked up to all sorts of monitors. After being there a long time I left to get something to eat...
I get a call from her doctor saying that my mother had died.
I get a call from the doctor 5 minutes later saying that the team at the hospital got a pulse, he doesn't know exactly what happened, but he's running down to the hospital immediately.
I meet him there and he says that someone screwed up somewhere and he thinks she flatlined for at least 5 minutes before someone noticed and initiated resuscitation. She definitely has significant brain damage and they're moving her to the ICU. A neurologist will be there the next morning (Sunday) to do an assessment.
No show on the neurologist on Sunday. Finally she decides to show up on Monday. Initial CAT scan didn't show anything but she says that this is typical for damage from hypoxyia. Another CAT scan yesterday shows nothing, again somewhat typical. I'm waiting to hear back the results of the EEG today. But her kidneys are failing and I have to make a decision sooner or later whether to go ahead with dialysis, and it's almost 72 hours that she's been unconscious, which isn't good, there's only pain reflex on her right side, and she isn't initiating breathing on her own.
So pretty much there's only two types of news at this point: very bad, and worse. I'm praying, but I'm not sure what kind of outcome to pray for.
My mother, who is an emphysema sufferer, has been temporarily in a nursing home for rehab to ween her off a respirator. She was brought to the hospital on Saturday suffering from accute pneumonia. Emergency took care of her and sent her up to a monitoring wing in the hospital (a not-quite-ICU). She's hooked up to all sorts of monitors. After being there a long time I left to get something to eat...
I get a call from her doctor saying that my mother had died.
I get a call from the doctor 5 minutes later saying that the team at the hospital got a pulse, he doesn't know exactly what happened, but he's running down to the hospital immediately.
I meet him there and he says that someone screwed up somewhere and he thinks she flatlined for at least 5 minutes before someone noticed and initiated resuscitation. She definitely has significant brain damage and they're moving her to the ICU. A neurologist will be there the next morning (Sunday) to do an assessment.
No show on the neurologist on Sunday. Finally she decides to show up on Monday. Initial CAT scan didn't show anything but she says that this is typical for damage from hypoxyia. Another CAT scan yesterday shows nothing, again somewhat typical. I'm waiting to hear back the results of the EEG today. But her kidneys are failing and I have to make a decision sooner or later whether to go ahead with dialysis, and it's almost 72 hours that she's been unconscious, which isn't good, there's only pain reflex on her right side, and she isn't initiating breathing on her own.
So pretty much there's only two types of news at this point: very bad, and worse. I'm praying, but I'm not sure what kind of outcome to pray for.
