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7 August 2007
I have a very sad story to tell about the best mother, Connie Lester just 56 years old who I don't believe should have died but the doctors missed her aneurysm.
On May 6th of 2007 my mom went to her local hospital bluefield Regional Medical in Bluefield West Virginia with dizziness and a very bad headache and the hospital did do a cat scan which I'm not sure they even looked at and told her everything was fine and didn't even give anything for her headache which eventually went away a day later.
Then two weeks later on the 25th of May my mother was found by my dad unresponsive and having a seizure my dad called 911 and when the ambulance got to her home she woke up and was talking to them, they told my dad that she was just having a seizure and would be fine even though she had never had one before.
At the hospital the doctor told my dad that my mom had a minor stroke but was fine, even though by now moms right side was very week and she had drooping eyes and couldn't remember what had happened to her. After he finished talking to her he left the room and she stated vomiting uncontrollably my dad called the doctor to come and help. As the doctor came in the room she stooped breathing. They resuscitated her and put in a breathing tube, then they decided to do another cat scan which came back with a massive bleed on her brain, but I can clearly see the aneurysm on the cat scan from the 6th which is why I don't believe they looked at the first scan and I'm not a doctor.
At that hospital they were not equipped to handle her case then the doctor started trying to find anyone that would take I have list of hospitals he called but the closest one Virginia tech which told him they would only take her in dire need and the doctor even though she had to be resuscitated wasn't in dire need. So she was life flighted to tenneesee a 30 minuet helicopter ride which left her there dieing for another hour.
She was finally in a hospital that could do her much needed surgery. I believe they did the surgery right away but cant be sure because they will not send me her records. My sisters and I live in Chicago IL and didn't get there until 3 o'clock in the after noon about 6 hours after her surgery and they gave almost zero chance of survival right from the start which was unbelievable because she was fine the day before. They told she should be awake by now and it was bad. They also were saying that her urine was excessive and had me sign permission to put in a stunt I think its called so they would have to keep changing her iv because her arms would get bruised. While talking to my mom who looked like she was sleeping had a small seizure and looked to us liked she was gagging on the breathing tube trying to talk but never opened her eyes, the nurses kept asking us to leave the room and we were tired we left for the two drive back to moms house. We got to moms at about 11 o'clock that night and passed out from the like 16 hours of driving.
The next day all my sisters got there and we were sure no mater what we were being told that when all of us get she will have no choice but wake up, and because it was Memorial weekend and we were always together on the holidays sense my parents had only lived in west Virginia for 10 months we were a very close family and spent a lot of time together this would be the first time in 10 months that we would all be together even though we had all visited our parents in the ten months they had been there we came at different times and my parents were planning on visiting us the first week in June a matter of fact we were counting the days down until they came, one of the last things my mom said to me was 8 days.
Anyway When we all got to the hospital we wasn't prepaired for what we found my mom was gone she looked like plastic, she was covered to her neck in what looked like bubble wrap and the neurosurgeon who was also the head of organ donation put us all in a room and told us that my mom was pronounced brain dead three hour ago that they had a down a test that they unhooked from life support for 10 minutes to see if she would gasp for air and she didn't I think because it had only been like 30 hour since her surgery that it was to soon but he said something about now its about quality of live and not about quantity and we had to face it that she was gone, I STILL DON'T KNOW THEY WERE ABLE TO DO A TEST THAT INVOLVES TAKING HER OFF LIFE SUPORT BUT NEEDED OUR PERMISSION TO PUT A PORT IN HER CHEST WHICH THEY STARTED BUT NEVER FINISHED. I still have many question but know one will answer them. We received a letter couple of weeks ago about the organ donation and who received what and not to sound bad but I was really hoping that children would be helped but that wasn't the case but then I think I shouldn't feel that way because my mom was 56 years old at the time and if anyone could have helped I wouldn't want them to think that the organs should be elsewhere.
Discussion, comments, or questions: Tina Barajas
© Copyright 2007 Tina Barajas
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