Ruptured Splenic Artery Aneurysm
6 December 2004
My name is David Sasser; I am a Police Sergeant for a small police department in Central California. I have two beautiful children Jacque 15½ and Josh 12 years old. I have been married for approximately 16 years to my wife Vicky. On April 18th 2004 my life was thrown into a violent storm.
You see my wife and I were 40 years old; we were starting to talk about retirement as I only had nine years to go. We purchased property out of state and had plans of moving there and opening a restaurant. However, in September of 2003 we got a surprise; after spending the weekend in Reno we learned that Vicky was pregnant. This came as a shock to us as we already had our family and we were 40. Our kids were stoked but we were a little less enthusiastic.
Our pregnancy was rather un-remarkable. Vicky showed some signs of high blood pressure and was taken off work, primarily as just a precaution. On April 18th Vicky had decided to head into to town to pick up some Mexican food for breakfast. Around 9:00 a.m. I received a strange cell phone call from Vicky. Wherein she told me she was feeling like she was going to pass out. I directed her to pull over into a parking lot and I would respond to her location and pick her up. I loaded up the kids and we headed into town. Something didn't seem right, God had sent me a message, so I decided to call the Paramedics and have an Ambulance meet us.
I found Vicky slouched over the front wheel of her Yukon. She was pale and not very responsive. At about the same time the paramedics had arrived and I stepped aside. They informed me that her blood pressure was a little low and it concerned them, so they were recommending transporting her to the hospital. I agreed and asked them to transport her to our Hospital as they had all of Vicky's history.
We followed and met up with Vicky at our hospital. Vicky was taken into the ER and seen by one of our doctors. They too noticed that Vicky's blood pressure was low, but they didn't feel it was critical. The course of action was to one check on the baby, who did not appear to be under stress and the cause for Vicky's low blood pressure.
An Ultrasound was performed and there was nothing out of the ordinary. It was voted against doing a CAT scan due to Vicky's advanced stage of pregnancy. In speaking with the doctors later they have changed their procedures to conduct a more thorough Ultrasound reading from the pelvis and upper abdomen as well as from the side.
Nothing was found in the initial exam. Our doctor recommended giving Vicky some pain medication and some form of anti acid. We were in the process of dressing Vicky and getting ready to take her home. When Vicky let out a scream and immediately went into agonal breathing. Being a police officer for 20 years I have seen this sign before and immediately I understood that my wife was going into shock. I screamed for the ER staff and quickly I was rushed from the room. During the next hour and half I was told that they lost Vicky and could not regain a blood pressure. They were not sure where she was bleeding from and they wanted to establish a blood pressure so they could perform exploratory surgery. I was told that their main concern was trying to save Vicky and they felt there wasn't much hope of saving the baby.
The surgeon facilitated a blood pressure for Vicky and performed an exploratory surgery. Upon opening up Vicky he quickly found the source of the bleeding. He described it as an Arterial Aneurysm to the Spleen. He stabilized her as best as possible. After the three-hour surgery he commented on the fact that Vicky was still alive and he couldn't believe how she could be given the amount of blood she lost. He did inform me the grave news that our un-born daughter had not survived.
The next 13 hours were some of the most trying times of my life. I had to gather family from as far away as Wyoming and hoped that Vicky could stay alive for all of them to make their peace.
Over these hours Vicky was responsive, even though she was hooked up to life support. She was so strong and would hold onto my hand through it all. I felt her slip away hour by hour. She would take my hand and move it over her belly, I knew what she was asking, but I just couldn't bring my self to tell her that we had lost our baby (Jocelyn Angelee). The doctors tried to remain encouraging however, they frankly described the fact that Vicky's organs were slowly shutting down due to stress and it was only a matter of time.
My children were able to say goodbye to their mother as well as all of our family. We lost Vicky on April 19th at 11:45 p.m.
I share this with all of you only in the hopes that you learn that life is too short to waste it on things that matter little. That you should one focus on God, family and friends; work should never fit in there. God has given us the understanding to why Vicky was taken from us. This may be hard for some of you to understand but when you realize this life is not about us, then it makes all of the sense in the world, well this world anyway.
God bless and I hope this helps someone out there as it has helped me by writing it. I debated writing but once I did it became very therapeutic.
Psalm 28:7
Discussion, comments, or questions: David Sasser
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