It is late now, around 1:00 am. My mom hears me not breathing well. My mom and dad jump up and rush me to the hospital. We are all in our pajamas. We headed for CIMA the private hospital I stayed at last year when I had pnuemonia. CIMA was not prepared for our arrival. Most doctors are on vacation now and CIMA does not have the frequent visits of emergency situations like the public Children’s Hospital. My mom immediately told the nurse I needed oxygen. The nurse still wanted to check me over. My mom insisted that she give me some oxygen. The nurse called the doctor and took me into a room. At this point I have begun to have a severe seizure. They call them Tonic Clonic.
My body is seizing like never before. My arms are and legs are stiff my eyes are very distant. The doctor arrives and immediately gives me a dose of Midazolam ( a drug to stop the seizure) that is administered in my bum. This does not help I still continue to seize. We try another dose, nothing changes. The doctor tries 4 more drugs to get me to stop seizing and nothing is helping. This is not good, my brain needs to stop seizing. What is happening is status epilepticus, which means my brain is in a constant state of persistent seizure. This alone can be life threatening.
My body is absorbing these drugs and now everything begins to slow down. I am having trouble breathing I just want to go to sleep. What is this I am feeling? My vitals are being monitored my heart rate is dropping and my oxygen is dropping. God is that You I see? I hear my parents in the distance my mom is frantic my dad is yelling telling them to get more oxygen to me. A familiar face is there, Jose my respiratory therapist from last year. He is trying to get me intubated. I can not breathe on my own now. Please get air into my lungs. My face is turning blue and my chest is barely moving. What is that light I see? Finally I feel air in my lungs.I gasp I am breathing now and my heart rate goes up and oxygen now going up color is slowly returning to my face.
Why am I still seizing? It has been nearly an hour and I am still in a state of seizure. Brain please stop convulsing. I want to rest my body. The doctor is now trying to get the artery in my femur so that she can give me an infusion of midazolam. The prior drugs have not helped me yet. Finally my vein is found the needle is in and a slow infusion of midazolam has begun. This last effort finally gets me to stop seizing. My brain has stopped seizing but my body now has so much to do. Why is it so much work to breathe and pump blood into my heart? Oh no it is happening again. My vitals are going down, my O2 goes from 95 to 86,76,64,53,46,32,20, 15 my heart rate drops to 30 and my blood pressure is dropping rapidly. My face is turning blue again. There is that light again it is warm and comforting there. Is that an angel I see fluttering around me? It is easier for me to just go to sleep, too much work to breathe. I feel Jose pumping by hand air into my lungs. Everyone is telling me to breathe, breathe. Wait a minute, I can’t go yet. I have more things to accomplish. I have to teach my parents more. It is not my time. Ok I can do this breathe again…. turn away from that light… tell the angels bye…. come back to mom and dad. Color slowly begins to to return to my face. I am still so cold. Vitals coming back.
At this point my mom has spoken to my pediatrician at Cima. Since the head doctor of ICU is out of town she tells us we need to go to the Children’s hospital so that I can be watched 24/7 there are more doctors and staff there. The ambulance comes. My dad goes with me and my mom follows behind in the car. The ride from CIMA to Children’s is 15 minutes. Cruising along at a high speed the driver takes the wrong turn. He is lost. He takes us down a dead end street. He flies over a speed bump and I rise off the gurney. My dad is very angry now. He asks him do you not know where the hospital is located? Slow down over the bumps he yells. He finally gets us there and when backing up hits the wall of the hospital. He looks at my dad and says that will be $100 for the ride. It is a complete miracle now that my dad did not choke him. The driver did not get paid. He was fortunate to walk away with his life. The doors to the emergency room fly open. I am immediately hooked up to life support and my first diagnosis is septic shock.