On Saturday, August 11th, 2001, my 51 year old mother drove two hours from home to visit a friend who was in a hospital recovering from minor surgery. My mother was in excellent health, a non-smoker with no history of high blood pressure or headaches. While she sat at her friend's bedside, comforting her, my mother collapsed to the floor and lost consciousness. She was immediately rushed to the ER and put on a ventilator. My family received the news that my mom had suffered a subarachnoid hemorrhage and we rushed to the hospital to find my mother still unconscious, cold as ice, and on a life support system. She had very minimal brain activity. The doctors told us that the aneurysm rupture occurred in the part of the brain that controlled respiratory function, which explained why she immediately lost consciousness.
The next two days that followed my mother remained in a coma, but began to involuntarily move her arms and legs. Though this was progress, the surgeon and doctors were doubtful she would survive after looking at the results of the cerebral angiogram, which showed that the hemorrhage had been great and she had a lot of blood in all hemispheres of the brain. The surgeon thought that surgery would be risky in her current state. If she made progress, the surgeon planned to surgically clip the aneurysm a couple days later.
The next day, my mother miraculously regained consciousness, opening her eyes. Though she couldn't speak, we were sure she could recognize and respond to us. She was scheduled to have surgery the following day, and we were so frightened that she would not survive it, or if she did, she would never regain consciousness again.
The surgery went well, the four longest hours of my family's lives, and my mother awoke several hours afterward. It has been 10 days since the surgery, and my mother has improved each day. She is breathing on her own, talking softly, and is beginning physical and speech therapy. We are very encouraged that she will make a good recovery.
The doctors tell us that if she were more that 5-10 minutes away from emergency care, she would never have survived. We are so thankful that this occurred while she was at a hospital. We know the Lord must have been looking out for her and continues to do so as she progresses.