It's Kathy. Just got back from the hospital. Mom is stable but still unconscious.
I woke very late this morning (7:45 a.m.) because I was up during the night coughing. The phone rang as soon as I sat up and it was the facility calling to say that mom had an "incident" and pulled out her trach and she was being sent to the hospital as a precaution. Jean (Claudia's son) was on his way to start the day with mom this morning. He was very excited to be starting "Nonny's" day with her and had all kinds of activities planned to do with her. He arrived to a chaotic mess. They were already working on mom when Jean got there. Some nurses and CNAs were in the hallway gathered by mom's room and when they saw Jean they said, "Oh man, your mom and aunt are gonna be really mad when they hear about this!" At that point, one of the nurses we love, put his arms around Jean, hugged him, and said, "Of course, they will be mad. They have every right to be mad" and he led Jean away to tell him what happened. I met Jean at the facility after mom was taken in the ambulance and we drove to the hospital together. By this time, the report was that mom's emergency alarm had suddenly sounded and they responded and found her trach out and they had to put it back in and they had to "bag" her---this means that they had to do CPR procedures which require a mask attached to a balloon bag that emits air when pumped/squeezed. They needed to do this in order to prevent cardiac arrest (she didn't go into cardiac arrest, thank God). They said that her oxygen levels dropped down to 40 (not good) but that supposedly, she never stopped breathing. I asked why no one paid attention to mom's alarm alert until it was an emergency---they all had just changed shifts and were doing rounds when this happened. In my experience since this all happened to mom, the alarm alert doesn't just shoot from nothing to emergency level...if mom hiccups the alarm sounds. Granted there are different levels and sounds to each alarm depending on the level of the problem...but my point is that no one responded to the low level alarms which would have prevented all this from happening. I asked for a list of names---who was on duty during that time in every department. The first nurse hung up on me because I was speaking really loudly because I was upset. The second nurse was the one we love and he apologized profusely (though it is never his fault).
Mom was brought to the emergency room of the hospital near my house. Coincidently, but most likely Divinely, mom's pulminologist and neurologist were both at the hospital doing rounds---thank God!! They immediately responded to mom. The pulminologist determined that during the "bagging" procedure at the facility, mom's lung collapsed/punctured/popped (too much air was pushed into her lungs and her left lung was affected). They put a tube into mom's lung to expand it and blow air in---as of this evening, her lung was doing what it is supposed to do and responding well. Anthony went to tell dad and to pick him up---he was at church. They arrived at the hospital after Jean and I. John, Claudia, Ava, and Con and Rie and Phil all came to be at the hospital too.
Mom was stable when she entered the hospital and remained stable. At the hospital, they explained that what had initially happened was that mom had a blockage in her upper airway. The blockage was congealed phlegm that was harder for mom to cough up. When it is hard to cough up, it blocks the airway and also causes all other secretions to pool in the throat and lungs which gives the person the sensation of feeling like he/she is drowning. Once mom felt like this, she panicked and pulled on the trach and it was pulled out. Looking back, I now realize that when I thought mom was having anxiety attacks, this is what was happening. If you remember, weeks ago, one of the night nurses came in response to my calling for help with mom because she appeared to be "belly/abdominal breathing and spasming and her arms were clammy. He said she probably needed suctioning and after he did that, she was fine. He is the person who explained the whole drowning thing to me. Claudia recently wrote about a blockage and that the same belly breathing thing and a respiratory therapist came and suctioned mom and put some saline solution into the trach to dissolve the blockage. Mom was then fine.
Mom remained in the emergency room all day and they were going to leave her there, but a family member knew someone who arranged for mom to get a bed. Mom is now in the SICU...Surgery Intensive Care Unit with 24 hour monitoring...similar to when she was at North Shore. When dad and I saw mom, I prayed over her immediately. She began to respond as per the neurologist shortly thereafter. She also began to throw up for a while in the emergency room too. They still don't know why. Dad said he thought it could be in response to her collapsed lung finally opening. Though she remained unconscious all day and night, John asked her to open her eyes twice and she did it slightly. Dad asked her the same thing and she opened them all the way (but all 3 times it was only briefly and then she quickly closed them). Con asked her to smile and she did---strange smile but a smile for certain. One of the nurses asked her to open her mouth and she did that too.
The problem is that we don't know for sure if there will be any additional brain damage at this point. Her CAT Scan was normal with no difference from October...this is good. Her neurologist said, based on the information he was given (never stopped breathing, facility responded and took care of everything in 1-2 minutes...), he has every hope at this point that mom will come back from this and be just as she was before this happened. But, he isn't sure. He said it is typical for someone who has gone through this to be unresponsive and lethargic and unconscious for up to 4 days; but we will know more after that as far as where she is mentally. He said that along this road, it is typical to take 2 steps forward and one step back. He said it is a set back but this happens but she looks stable and she looks better and better each time he sees her. He told us several times that he has every hope she will do well and that he saw slight improvement already and that we need to continue to rehabilitate her as we have been and go on from here. When dad and Claudia saw mom in the SICU tonight, she responded in an agitated way to Claudia wiping mom's nose and she also yawned and seemed to stretch at one point as well.
Mom will be in the hospital for 2-7 days. John and I left at 2 to go to the facility to get mom's hearing aids, glasses, and night time "loveys." While there, we spoke to the head of respiratory and updated him and thanked him for his service to mom. I told him to let every respiratory person who works with mom know that between 7 p.m. and 8 a.m. they need to check on her for blockages and suction her and maybe even do a saline treatment especially now that mom goes to physical therapy and the movement is unblocking previously blocked areas of thick mucus. We also talked to mom's daytime CNA (who we love) and she said she had seen mom about 30 minutes before this happened (she doesn't know the signs to look for with the belly breathing ....). The CNA said "She is going to get better because we call her the Miracle Lady around here" and then she hugged me. We also spoke to the nurse we love too and the recreation therapist who said she was so happy we were going to have the recreation room for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day...no more. I also spoke on the phone to the building administrator to ask if mom's bed would be held... oh yes, she might lose her bed and room and have to move...again...he said that (contrary to what he told the men when Claudia and I were in Toronto) she has a bed hold for 14 days every 12 months (not per episode) as per NYS. I expressed my concerns at the lack of response to the early alarms and asked him to tell the staff that they need to take their jobs very seriously and respond when an alarm goes off. I told him it was unfortunate and that "it is what it is" regarding mom, but that this didn't need to happen at all---it could have been prevented. He was patronizing but I just said that I needed to speak the truth and put it out there to him and what he does with the truth from here is his business.
While the pulminologist took background data from me and Anthony about mom, he asked if she was predominantly a house wife her whole life and I said yes she was. He said "Well of course she was, she had to be in order to raise such a loving family. You know, you won't believe this but I swear to you, on my way to work this morning, in my car on the LIE, I was thinking about your family. And I said, there has to be a higher power, a God, because of the love I see in your family and the care that you give to your mom. I swear to you. I prayed to that God and asked Him, please, when I get old some day, please send family to take care of me the way that your family takes care of your mom. I watch you all and think, yes, there is a God."
What an awesome honor. Please continue to pray for us all. I am still sick and so is Lenny. Dad is a total wreck. He is very fragile right now. Please pray for us all. We can't thank you enough.
"Therefore once more I will astound these people with wonder upon wonder..." Isaiah 29:14
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