L
linamia
Guest
On March 24, 2001 my 19 year old niece woke up from her bed and walk into her parents room, her dad thought that she was on the phone in his room (typical teenage behavior) he kept telling her to get of the phone and when she didn?t offer a wise crack (expected teenage behavior) He walked into her room and was surprised to heat her snoring it couldn?t be she was in there for less than 10 minutes. This startled him and he turned on the lights, only to find that my beautiful niece was having some sort of attack. He is in the health field and immediately started CPR (thinking that it was a heart attack or an epilepsy attack) all this was going on as he screamed to his other daughter to get an ambulance.
The ambulance arrived and as a general rule took her to the closest hospital (over my brother-in laws objections) when she arrived at the hospital the parents where told that it could be a drug overdose or an aneurysm. A cat scan confirmed the latest. She was transferred to Bellevue Hospital (very good place to go if anything major needs to be done) where she would have surgery to release the pressure in her brain (the risk of brain damaged where stressed but there was hope). Things change in route to Bellevue when she arrived she was examined and her parents where told that they believe she was brain dead (there was nothing more they could do) My sister lost it she argued that her body was still warm and insisted that something anything should be done for her first born child.
As I arrived that was the seen that unfolded in front of me the pain was unbearable I felt that this was not possible happening to us how could this child be gone, she was never sick in her life what did we do wrong what did we missed. I have three daughters and I could not even imagine being in my sister shoes, how was I going to help her overcome this. I did the only thing that I could, I prayed and I prayed hard, God grant me the serenity to accept the things I can not change and change the things that I can, and the wisdom to know the difference (how handy that the prayer came to my mind as such a crucial moment). As we stood over my niece?s body with the ventilator machine hissing away god granted me with the most serene feeling that I have ever experienced in my life. If we had to deal with this pain then I needed all the information that I could get I pulled the doctors aside and told them that I needed all the information they could give me. My sister and her husband were overcome with grief I knew that they could not think straight. I told them that I would not loose it I would be their ambassador (it was the least I could do for this young lady that I loved as much as my daughters)
The doctors explained that they had done a series of test to determine if there was brain activities (DR. Ech. I am sure you are familiar with this horrible test that they use to determine brain activities) and that she exhibit no sign of brain activity but that this test had to be done again by another doctor and it had to be a least six hour apart if the test Concorde the same result then she would be declared brain dead and they would disconnect the machine this was not our option only if she was in a coma could we fight to keep her on the machine, and the different between a coma and brain dead is that in a coma she would have some activity even if very minimal (doctor Ech please correct me if I get any medical term wrong I want to inform the board of this situation but I do not want to get it wrong). This took place in the morning of Sunday March 25 she had been in the hospital now for over 22 hours. We were informed that the second round of test would be dome at 2:00 Pm Sunday morning.
After I gather all the information I sat my sister down and calmly explained it to her with out the doctors advised I ask her how she felt about organ donation (We were recipients of a liver, our stepmother had had a liver transplant in 1993 and she lived until July 2000). She said that if her baby was dead she waned her to help others live, I explained to her that not everyone is as fortunate to die in a way that they can save others and this in itself was a gift from God.
By the time the doctors pronounced her brain dead we had all decided that we would donate her organs. When my niece was pronounced dead there were more than 50 people at her bedside (so many of her teenage friends where affected severely by her death that my sister and I found our selves comforting them instead of the other way around.)
We requested an autopsy maybe this will give us an answer as to why this happened. However we know in our hearts that we did the right thing when we donated her organs, she was the type of person who would have done the same, had she had the opportunity. We will always remember this special young lady and we know that she is still living in others. By Monday we knew that all of her organs were distributed maybe someday the pain of losing her so early will ease but for now we take comfort in knowing that her heart still beats. (I would like to meet the recipients I do not know if my sister would like the same) .
Donations is not for everyone some religions are against it, but I feel that if Good chose you would know if it is right or not (sorry to mention God so much but believe in him over all else)
The reason I wrote this long account of what happened to my family is so that the readers of this board would take the time to love their children please tell them a million times a day how much you love them we as parents never expect to outlive our children but it happens and when it does it is the greatest pain in the world.
The ambulance arrived and as a general rule took her to the closest hospital (over my brother-in laws objections) when she arrived at the hospital the parents where told that it could be a drug overdose or an aneurysm. A cat scan confirmed the latest. She was transferred to Bellevue Hospital (very good place to go if anything major needs to be done) where she would have surgery to release the pressure in her brain (the risk of brain damaged where stressed but there was hope). Things change in route to Bellevue when she arrived she was examined and her parents where told that they believe she was brain dead (there was nothing more they could do) My sister lost it she argued that her body was still warm and insisted that something anything should be done for her first born child.
As I arrived that was the seen that unfolded in front of me the pain was unbearable I felt that this was not possible happening to us how could this child be gone, she was never sick in her life what did we do wrong what did we missed. I have three daughters and I could not even imagine being in my sister shoes, how was I going to help her overcome this. I did the only thing that I could, I prayed and I prayed hard, God grant me the serenity to accept the things I can not change and change the things that I can, and the wisdom to know the difference (how handy that the prayer came to my mind as such a crucial moment). As we stood over my niece?s body with the ventilator machine hissing away god granted me with the most serene feeling that I have ever experienced in my life. If we had to deal with this pain then I needed all the information that I could get I pulled the doctors aside and told them that I needed all the information they could give me. My sister and her husband were overcome with grief I knew that they could not think straight. I told them that I would not loose it I would be their ambassador (it was the least I could do for this young lady that I loved as much as my daughters)
The doctors explained that they had done a series of test to determine if there was brain activities (DR. Ech. I am sure you are familiar with this horrible test that they use to determine brain activities) and that she exhibit no sign of brain activity but that this test had to be done again by another doctor and it had to be a least six hour apart if the test Concorde the same result then she would be declared brain dead and they would disconnect the machine this was not our option only if she was in a coma could we fight to keep her on the machine, and the different between a coma and brain dead is that in a coma she would have some activity even if very minimal (doctor Ech please correct me if I get any medical term wrong I want to inform the board of this situation but I do not want to get it wrong). This took place in the morning of Sunday March 25 she had been in the hospital now for over 22 hours. We were informed that the second round of test would be dome at 2:00 Pm Sunday morning.
After I gather all the information I sat my sister down and calmly explained it to her with out the doctors advised I ask her how she felt about organ donation (We were recipients of a liver, our stepmother had had a liver transplant in 1993 and she lived until July 2000). She said that if her baby was dead she waned her to help others live, I explained to her that not everyone is as fortunate to die in a way that they can save others and this in itself was a gift from God.
By the time the doctors pronounced her brain dead we had all decided that we would donate her organs. When my niece was pronounced dead there were more than 50 people at her bedside (so many of her teenage friends where affected severely by her death that my sister and I found our selves comforting them instead of the other way around.)
We requested an autopsy maybe this will give us an answer as to why this happened. However we know in our hearts that we did the right thing when we donated her organs, she was the type of person who would have done the same, had she had the opportunity. We will always remember this special young lady and we know that she is still living in others. By Monday we knew that all of her organs were distributed maybe someday the pain of losing her so early will ease but for now we take comfort in knowing that her heart still beats. (I would like to meet the recipients I do not know if my sister would like the same) .
Donations is not for everyone some religions are against it, but I feel that if Good chose you would know if it is right or not (sorry to mention God so much but believe in him over all else)
The reason I wrote this long account of what happened to my family is so that the readers of this board would take the time to love their children please tell them a million times a day how much you love them we as parents never expect to outlive our children but it happens and when it does it is the greatest pain in the world.