I Love You Dad -- Earthwatchers

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Date Posted: 14:57:01 07/23/04 Fri
Author: Iris
Subject: I Love You Dad

July 8, 2004

I wake up from my sleep with my heart pounding in my chest. For a moment, I'm not sure what woke me up. Then I realize it's my cell phone. Who is calling me at 1:30am? My fiance is also awake now. I pick up the phone and it's my youngest brother. His voice sad and low. He tells me my dad is in the hospital, and it could be fatal. I ask him what happened and he starts to cry. In a muffled voice, he tells me my dad might have had a stroke and the doctors want all family members to come to the hospital. My mind went blank and all I could hear is the echo of someone's voice and crying. It was me, crying and muttering "This can't be happening to me!" Without hesitation, my fianc� gets dressed and some how manages to dress me. We get to the hospital, and my brother and my mother crying hysterically greet me. My younger sister is also there. I head straight to the room my father was in, and almost fell to my knees to see so many tubes hooked up to my father. He looked so weak and frail. My Hero has fallen. I asked the doctor in charge what was wrong. He explained to me my father had a brain aneurism, a pretty massive one. It was located in the center on the right side of his brain, 4-5 centimeters deep into the brain. I asked what would be done to help my father recover. The doctor told me that there was not much they could do. There was no such medicine to stop the bleeding and that surgery would be impossible. He said that the bleeding was so deep into the brain that if they had to perform surgery my father would become a vegetable. He also stated that they were not able to determine which blood vessel ruptured and only thing to do is to wait and hope that the blood gets re-absorbed into the body. I couldn't believe my ears. I walk over to my father�s bed and asked if he could talk. Softly, he said yes and smiled. He was also able to move the right side of his body but not the left. He kept complaining of a headache and that he was thirsty. Moments later, they took him to the ICU. I couldn't understand why the doctors were not able to do anything besides give my father IV and Tylenol to lessen his headache. My mother and I kept insisting to the doctors that surgery or other forms of treatment must be available. They just shook their heads and said that it was not possible. Three days later, because he was in the same condition they moved him for the ICU to a regular room. The next day the bleeding in his brain started again, and he was no longer speaking or responding to any of us. The next day the doctors told us that his brain was dead and they needed to take him off of the ventilator because it would cost the hospital $3,000-$4,000 a day to keep him on it. They insisted that it would be pointless to keep him on the ventilator any longer. My mother begged to keep him on for a couple days longer. They said that they would give us 24 hours. After 24 hours, they would take things into their own hands. We didn't have a choice. My father passed on July 13th, 2004. His funeral is scheduled for July 24th, 2004.

My family has still not found closer. For some reason, I can't help but to feel that the doctors did little but nothing to try to help my father. I decide to post my story because I would like more information about brain aneurisms. Could my father have been saved if he had the proper medical treatment? There are so many questions that the doctors at that hospital were not able to answer for us. Please feel free to respond to this posting and give me your input. I hope it would give me some peace of mind.

Iris
Iris4_eva@yahoo.com

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