“We searched for weeks, and came up empty handed. I remember so vividly sitting in the waiting room thinking this is just a bad dream and we would wake up!”
‘She and her brother are both adopted, so we couldn’t even do a half match! That call was devastating. How could we come this far and not have any matches?! We felt hopeless.’
‘I had fallen forward on my belly. I was placed on a gurney, in full uniform, and wheeled through the ER. ‘We should talk delivery options.’ My response? ‘Um, excuse me?’
“I could feel it all. Then the anesthesiologist said, ‘Okay, we’re putting you to sleep now.’ And for the second time that day, I blacked out. My husband’s phone showed he got the call at 10:53.”
‘My eyes darted back and forth as I tried to make sense of where I was. As the fog lifted inside my head, I vaguely remembered bits and pieces of the day before, events that changed my life.’
“While I lay on the operating table, my husband sat in the waiting room, wondering if he would lose all three children and his wife in one day. As he overheard the doctors, one word stood out.”
‘I wanted to shake her, wake her up, start CPR – surely they could do something, she looks perfect, she could survive at 33 weeks. But it was too late.’
“I felt an immediate uncontrollable sickness and stumbled to the bathroom where I noticed there was blood. I was toppling over and shouted to my husband there was blood and call an ambulance.”
‘The first thing he wrote down was, ‘Was it my fault?’ I ran out of the room to get his mom. We all took a deep breath.’
“His coworker saw one of their work trucks in a bad accident on the highway. My heart started to race, and I frantically continued to call Brian over and over again. Still no answer.”
‘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.’
“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.”
‘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.”
