“As it hit midnight, I felt this overwhelming urge to call you. I knew something wasn’t right. I fell to the floor in shock. ‘Your sister has taken her life.’ I could not believe you were gone.”
‘I begged for you to stay the night, but you said you had to go. I gave you a big hug, not knowing it would be the last. You told me you would see me soon. I believed you.’
‘It was a busy day for me in the ER. I had 5 very sick patients. When I checked my phone, I had 10 missed calls. I called my dad back and he told me to sit down. My heart instantly sank.’
“I scanned the monitors and medications as any good nurse would do. I then saw my sister. And I knew.”
‘The doctor began asking what was in Kevin’s stomach. I said, ‘Why?’ He said, ‘When we intubated him, a bright lime green slime came shooting out of his mouth.’ My mind went blank.’
“I ran into the workout area and saw about 50 people around him on a gurney with an oxygen mask on. He was flailing uncontrollably all over the place. I was in absolute shock.”
‘I walked into my daughter’s room and instantly spotted that paper from the past. Seeing the 7 digits and extension took my breath away.’
‘As I stared at this phone number, my child said, ‘You can have it.’ What she didn’t know is that I already do have it. Tucked inside my wallet. That number is still stored in my phone, more than 5 years later.’
‘At the top of my lungs I was screaming, ‘Please God, please don’t take him, I know you hear me, don’t take him!’ I looked down and saw his eyes rolling back in his head.’
“He was a Marine, tall, handsome, had every quality I dreamed of as a little girl in a husband. He was my ‘rock.’ Years went by, and we continued to drift apart emotionally. Then, our lives changed that day.”
‘I wanted to hold her, nurse her, bond with her, but we did not have that chance. We did not get to follow any birth plan. Our plan was simply to survive.’
“Little did I know that holding her for the first time could be my last, as I was diagnosed with postpartum HELLP syndrome and admitted to the ICU that night.”
‘His demeanor changed. He told the nurse to get a doctor in there NOW. I started telling my mom I was sorry. I thought she was going to have to watch me die.’
“The anesthesiologist got in my face and told me I was leaving my children without a mother, that I was going to die on that table. He said, ‘This is as bad as it gets. Are you sure that’s the choice you want to make?’”
‘I woke her up at 2 a.m. and realized she couldn’t move her arm. I asked her to raise her arm, and realized it was paralyzed.’
“My 4 children came down with a regular, common cold. They all took the same medications, had the same symptoms. While 3 of my children continued to improve, my youngest daughter became extremely worse.”
‘On our wedding day, by the end of the night, he was drained. The morning after, he slept in late because he was so exhausted. His heart was racing, he was shaking.’
“I could see the fear in his eyes looking back at me from the mirror the second I approached him.”
‘My husband and I arrived at the hospital to await our baby’s arrival. I had no idea the very bed I was settling in would soon become my death bed.’
“I became frantic. Something terrible was happening. I told my husband to find help immediately. He needed to prepare himself that he may leave the hospital with a baby, but not his wife.”
