SupportJoAnne

My mother JoAnne was rushed to the emergency room at the Melrose Wakefield Hospital due to a slip and fall while at home. By her 3rd day at the hospital the doctors noticed her kidney levels started to rise and were not functioning properly. This caused her body to fill up with extra water and waste in which she began to become confused and delirious. She was then moved from a medical floor the ICU to be closely monitored as the cause of her kidneys failing was unknown at this point. I received a devastating phone call from the hospital that my mother was in cardiac arrest, and they had to rush her into surgery to try and place a stent in her heart. The doctors called me back an hour later stating that the surgery went well and the stent was placed successfully. no later than 30 minutes later I got a call that my mother went into cardiac arrest for 8 minutes and they had to resuscitate her. They then brought her back to the ER to place a impella in which is a mechanical device to help her heart pump. After the pump was placed, and they were preparing her to move out of to operating room she fell off the stretcher. This was due to short staff and in my opinion, negligence. On top of all that her body had been through for her to fall off a bed after having a stent and impella placed in her body was catastrophic, and I felt so sorry for the pain that had been inflicted on her. She was then transported to Tufts Medical Center over at the Cardiac Unit. During her stay she suffered from a staff infection in the blood and lungs and pneumonia. All her organs were failing (her heart, her kidneys, her lungs). Doctors were showing us x-rays of her lungs, and she just had holes all within her lungs because the infection was so bad it was eating away at the tissue in her lungs. She was in a medical induced coma so she was unaware of anything that was going on. Throughout the months she just went downhill, everyday she had to endure a new procedure. She had to receive dialysis, feeding tubes put in, tracheostomy and surgery after getting the tracheostomy due to complications. The doctors told us she had 10% chance or less of survival. By early November she took a turn in the right direction, and God created a miracle. She started to slowly make progress everyday, and now 6 months later she is in a long term facility getting occupational and physical therapy. She has lost all the hair in the back of her head due to pressure wounds from laying in a hospital bed all day for months. She received many other wounds throughout her body and she has to learn how to walk, swallow food, going to the bathroom, coordination all over again. All this being said she never stopped fighting, and God always had his hands around her. He has a purpose for his child, and we cannot wait to see the day she is able to do the simple things we tend to take for granted like walk up a flight of stairs, drive a car and most importantly, run after her grandchildren again. Despite all that she has been through she has such a positive attitude, and she is so grateful to be alive.