“I remember multiple vivid dreams of violent rape. As I woke, my ‘dreams’ transitioned to reality. The sorrow I felt was indescribable. I was devastated I’d missed those precious moments after birth. I wept, begged the doctors, ‘Please downgrade me out of the ICU so I can meet my baby!’ FINALLY, after 24 days in the hospital, I met my precious son. I smelled his skin. I’d almost died, and was now reunited with him.”
‘You had the baby 15 days ago. You’re in the hospital.’ Was he kidnapped?’: Mom births baby in medically-induced coma after frightening flu symptoms, ‘They knew I was dying’
‘You can’t put me in ICU Room 6. My mom just died there last week.’: Young woman miraculously survives pulmonary embolisms just one week after mom dies of ‘broken heart’
“I lost my best friend. ‘What am I supposed to do now?’ All I’d ever known was taking care of my mother. Suddenly, I felt a tightness in my chest. ‘Well here is the panic attack I’ve been waiting for since she died.’ I arrive at the ER. The doctor came in. I remembered her. She was the doctor who admitted my mom. My heart rate shot up in panic. I looked her right in the eyes. ‘You can’t put me in Room 6. My mom just died there last week.’”
‘I gave birth to this gorgeous, healthy baby a year after her father’s death.’: Widow gets pregnant with late husband’s baby from saved embryos, ‘now, after his death, it seemed possible’
“‘Sir, you have kidney cancer.’ My husband was 32. It was shocking. Before cancer was our biggest obstacle, infertility was. We chose to freeze his sperm – a decision that would change our lives forever. Two embryos were left over. Our hospital didn’t believe in destroying them, so I had to decide what that meant for me. Before he died, Joel told me, ‘You and I are going to have another baby. It will be a girl, you know what to name her.’”
‘The words hit me like a truck, ‘Gabby fell into the pool and she isn’t breathing.’: Aunt urges parents to know pool toys give ‘false feeling’ of safety after niece’s near-fatal swimming accident
“I always called my mom on my way home from work, but she wasn’t answering, so for some reason I felt the need to call my brother, Tim. He was at a friend’s house swimming. I heard my nieces and nephews playing in the background. I never thought that would be the last time I’d hear Gabby’s little voice.”
‘She’s beautiful, but something’s wrong with her heart.’ HOW? I was only 23! I clapped my hands over my face and WEPT.’: Mom births baby with Truncus Arteriosu, says motherhood is all about ‘rolling with the punches’
“My husband drove me down to the waterfront, my idea of motherhood now a pile of dust and rubble. Was I really made for this? We’d both been crying for several hours. He opened the envelope. ‘It’s a girl!’ his voice cracked. When they wheeled her away, we gave our final kisses. No matter how long she was with us, Shirley was a gift.”
‘I couldn’t move. They said I’d never walk again. I WALKED down the aisle at my wedding.’: Woman finds her ‘purpose’ after being paralyzed in horrific car accident
“I remember hearing someone scream ‘say something, say something!’ and all I could say was ‘help.’ I remember him running over to me and saying ‘I have help on the way, it’s going to be okay.’ I don’t remember anything after that.”
‘I had been on Adderall close to 15 years. When I woke up in ICU, I knew I had a problem.’: Mom of 3 now ‘clean, happy, full of hope’ after being addicted to prescription pills
“My dad found me. I was covered in bruises, rug burns and cuts head to toe. He called 911, immediately searched for those pills and found both bottles were empty. I have no recollection of taking any pills. I woke up to my best friend standing over me. ‘Why are you looking at me like I died? Where am I?’ They were my prescriptions from MY doctor. I wasn’t getting them off the streets, so I couldn’t possibly have a problem.”
‘I found his gun while blacked out. I held it to my head, trying to pull the trigger. His roommate ripped it away.’: Woman’s life has changed ‘drastically’ since becoming sober, turned her ‘nightmare’ into a ‘blessing’
“I felt awful, like I had hundreds of other mornings. But this day, something was different. My friend told me a story of my actions. While blacked out, I ran behind the bar where my ex worked. I started hitting him. Something in me snapped. THAT was my breaking point. It was the straw that broke the camel’s back. I was quiet for a moment, then I said with tears in my eyes, ‘That’s it. I’m done.’”
‘I felt the doctor reach inside me. Blood spilled out. I couldn’t bring myself to open my eyes.’: Mom survives ‘near-death birthing experience,’ admits to ‘physical, emotional trauma’ 10 years later
“My son was limp and blue, an umbilical cord choked around his neck. My face was so swollen my eyelids were turned upside down. I heard whimpers, more gushes. I called out to my husband. His voice weakly managed, ‘I love you’ as I was wheeled out of the room. He was left sitting on the hospital room floor, in a pool of my blood. The family my husband and I had always dreamed of was now painfully impossible.”
‘Is it cancer?’ I had to tell my son, ‘I don’t know.’ There’s no treatment. We were told go home and live life.’: Twin brother suffers 2 brainstem strokes caused by a cavernous angioma, mom says it’s made her children ‘kinder, better’
“I had 3 happy, healthy, perfect kids. Until I didn’t. Zach called home from the school nurse with a headache. I followed our standard rule, ‘You aren’t throwing up, you don’t have a fever. Go back to class.’ For 2 days, he told me his eyes and ears felt weird. I told a friend, a nurse, that my son was holding his head funny. Within a minute she said, ‘You need to get him checked.’ I said, ‘Oh ok.’ Then she said, ‘I mean now.’”
