Our Son, Jonathan
25 April 2005
Well my name is Claudia and I'm a mother of 3 beautiful children, Jonathan, karen and jessie,10,9,and 6.This past March 5th my oldest son Jonathan suffered an aneurysm and passed away on the 7th. Here is what happened...
That week Jonathan fell and landed on his shoulder and hit his head. That happened downstairs while I was getting ready to go out with my husband since it was our anniversary on the 2nd of March. Jonathan came upstairs crying very loudly and told me he had fallen and hurt his shoulder and head, but since he had always exagerated a bit when ever he had an accident I just told him to calm down and tell me what had happened. He told me. I checked him saw no bruises no blood and I just gave him some motrin for the pain and we went downstairs to have dinner.
While we were going down the stairs he threw up, but it was only a clear liquid and only a handfull so he went to the sink and washed up and he said he was fine he seemed normal from then on. We had dinner and got them a movie to watch while we went out. When we were leaving, the 3 of them were watching the movie and we said we'll be back soon take care and listen to the baby sitter if anything comes up call us on the cell phone and they said OK. Then Jonathan said happy anniversary guys! and I said thank you baby and we blew each other kisses and we left.
When we came home they were already asleep since they had to go to school the next morning, so we went straight to bed and the next morning I sent them to school. On Thursday Jonathan had a very bad nose bleed my husband helped him clean himself up but he thought maybe he had been picking his nose, I forgot to tell my husband that Jonathan had fallen the day before because since he seemed fine I never gave it a second thought and forgot all about it. BIG MISTAKE!!!
On friday the 4th I was getting my stuff ready because i had a scheduled surgery the nexy day for a tummy tuck in Tijuana Mexico wich is right across the border from San Diego. So we had dinner at night then I was on the computer. Jonathan complained of a headache that night. I gave him motrin and he was fine...later the next week I found the pills on my night stand he didnt take them,he felt better and didn't need them. All this I found out after his passing. His headaches had been coming suddenly and just as suddenly they went away. My daughter told me he was talking to himself one day that week and said oh man this weird headache...but then seemed fine...for a while and the kids watched a movie with my husband while I was at the computer and then I told the kids to go to bed because it was late and we had to get up early the next day.
My surgery was to be at 8:00 am so I had to leave the house around 7:00 to get there in time. My husband was doing a side job that saturday so Jonathan wanted to go along with him to help..he always liked to be his daddys helper. He wanted to be an architect. My son was always a very well behaved child ALWAYS, he didnt like to read much but during that week he started reading his bible. He seemed a little tired in the afternoons when he came home from school. I just thought it was because he was active all day. Never again did I remember him falling that awful day...so I went to Tijuana.
My husband and son were with me and they came up to the clinic and stayed with me until I checked in. I said good bye to them hugged them and kissed them, just in case something went wrong and I didnt wake up...that was always in the back of my head. But everything was fine so the nurse called my husband on the cell phone and told him I would be waking up in about an an hour and he could come visit. So he went home from work and showered and got the kids ready to come see me. When they came in Jonathan had a big flower bouquet with a balloon that said get well soon. I said thank you and hugged them.
Jonathan was so happy to see me doing so well. He told me how he picked out the ballon himself just for me and that he had to put it in himself for it to be perfect. I told him I loved him then his dad remembered he had forgotten his cell phone in the car and he asked jonathan if we could go get it for him. He said yes and took his younger brother Jessie with him and came back to tell us of the adventure they had while getting the cell phone. Turns out the elevator was broken and they had to take the stairs up. He sat on the floor for a few minutes...he seemed a little bit tired then he stood up, and asked what the catherer was for. I told him and he started laughing and said ugh disgusting and we started making jokes.
I told him that when he got married I would get him one to keep under his pillow to keep him warm and we all laughed. He went to look out the window which was right behind the bed I was in and said wow I can see the whole city from here! Then after a few minutes he started to walk back to the chair and when he was righ by my bedside he said oh man these headaches and touched the left side of his head then he started to pass out. He tried to grab on to the wall to keep him from falling but couldn't. He landed face down. His dad ran to his side and started screaming Jonathan baby what's wrong talk to me. Then he told me he's having a convulsion. I heard him grasping for air a couple of times and my husband was just screaming for help. There was no doctors at the clinic at that time. They had all left and wouldnt return till the next day to check the patients out.
I asked the nurse who seemed frightened and didnt know what to do to help my husband turn him over on his back so she helped him and jonathan took one last breath and didnt move anymore. He stopped breathing. I told my husband give him CPR...so he started to, but couldnt. Started yelling again he's not breathing so I got out of bed with the drains and the catherer on one hand and kneeled next to my son and started CPR on him. Then this guy I think he worked in one of the other clinics came and helped me. But jonathan wasn't responding anymore about 10 minutes after I had started giving CPR the paramedics came and took over.
I got dressed asked one of them to take out the IV on my wrist and left with them on the ambulance. They asked me which hospital I wanted to take him to I said the best one. I didn't know how that works in Mexico. When we got there they put him in a small room no equipment and they had to page a doctor cause none was on duty at the time. The first thing the receptionist asked me was how will you be paying for this. I said I didnt bring my purse with me but I will be paying cash. She said you need to leave a deposit with a credit card.
Up until this point I had managed to stay calm. I thought my son had just had a convulsion or that he passed out but that he was going to be fine but to hear this lady basically telling me that if i didnt have a credit card they weren't able to help him. I got histerical. I started to cry and to scream please help him. Please help him...then my husband came in with the kids they drove there when he saw me screaming he thought maybe jonathan had passed. I told him we needed a credit card and i didn't bring my purse. Fortunately he had his wallet with him so he gave the lady the credit card and she said I'm going to need approval before I can charge this to an American credit card. Then my husband screamed give me my son I will drive him over the border to an American hospital and they said he's not breathing on his own you can't do that.
So he said please help us that's my son. Can you please drive him to the border and we'll have an American ambulance pick him up. One of the paramedics asked him, do you have his passport or papers with you he didn't so he said I'm sorry we can't help you. So my husband asked me do you have his papers and I said yes I do. I don't know why I said that...all I had with me was a little plastic bag with the drains and the catherer in it. But the guy said OK lets go.
They put him back in the ambulance and drove full speed to the border we got in line and there were about 25 to 30 cars in front of us and the line wasnt moving. I got out of the ambulance I was walking bent foward because of the surgery and with difficulty but I managed to get close to the border patrol agent and he motioned for me to stop and I did. I yelled please help me my son is in the ambulance, he's having a heart attack so he got another agent and both of them helped us get through faster. I called the ambulance and it got there like in 2 minutes.
They rushed him to childrens hospital. They asked around what time it happened. I said around 5:30 or 6:00. It was alredy past 8:00. They did a cat scan his brain was flooded in blood he had suffered a massive aneurysm and the next day they told us he was brain dead. There was no brain activity. They asked if we wanted to donate his organs. I said no...secretly inside of me I felt God could still do a miracle and bring him back but no improvement was made. So my other 2 children were brought in to say good bye and me and my husband talked to him through out the night telling him how much we loved him and remembering about the times he had made us so proud of him. I told him to not be afraid because he was going to heaven and the angels were there already to guide him there.
I truly believe they were because Jonathan had this very peaceful look his face. I told him to look for his favorite heroes of the bible which were John, Peter and David and to say hi to my dad for me who had died almost 8 years ago from the same deadly aneurysm. The doctors said he was probably born with it and that the fall he suffered, had probably made it bleed.
All I keep thinking is, if only I had brought him to the hospital that day he fell or when he was having the headaches or when he got that nose bleed that day. Unfortunately it all came to me after it happened and then there was nothing I could do by then.
I hope this wasnt too long I just wanted to get it out of my system. I can't sleep at night thinking about what I should've done and didn't do. Because I wasn't paying attention...now i will have to live without him for the rest of my life. I cry as i am writing this...theres nothing more painfull than the death of a child..especially when you read about all these cases where they went to the doctor in time and they survived. My son was only 10 yrs old...he had so much to look foward to. His birthday is going to be on may 5th and I feel so sad right now. I dont know if I will be able to live with this guilt.
© Copyright 2005 Claudia Diaz
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