Michele

I remember that day very clearly. It was December 15, 1997. One day before Michelle's 31st birthday. Michele is my sister-in-law, but I've always considered her the sister I never had. She was a single parent with three children, Chasden, Kendra, and Tierra. Michele had always worked hard to support her kids and give them a good life. She also battled a weight problem, although to look at her you would never know it. She also had a drug problem. Pot was her drug of choice, but she also popped a few pills here and there....mostly Xanax and Vicodin. One day, Michele confessed to me that she had been crushing ritalin and snorting it up her nose. It helped to give her energy and controlled her appetite. For those of you who are not aware of this drug, it used to be the main drug used for children with ADHD. It is an amphetamine, which will slow down a child with ADHD, yet speed up the average person. Michele had begun having seizures. She told me about her use of Ritalin after having one of her seizures. I thought it may be the use of this drug that caused them to occur. She had started seeing a neurologist in Jackson, which was about 40 miles from where we lived, and she was scheduled to go back to see him that day. I was driving her because we were afraid to let her drive.


We left her house that morning and headed towards Jackson. We had traveled through a small town called McKenzie and pushed on towards the next town over called Tresvant. Now, you have to understand the layout here. This is a little 2 lane road that comes down a hill leaving McKenzie, then into what we refer to as "bottoms", which is essentially a swampy area with no shoulder on the road and absolutely nowhere to pull your car off or turn around. We had just traveled into the bottoms when I noticed Michele had not answered a question I had asked. I looked over at her and she was stiff as a board with her eyes rolled back in her head and she began gasping for air. I was not yet a nurse, but I had been trained to do CPR. I knew I could not safely pull over and get her out of the car and begin CPR, so I did a quick u-turn in the road and headed back to the small hospital in McKenzie with lights flashing and gas pedal to the floor. As I turned into the ER I noticed Michele had stopped breathing. I pulled in front of the doors, jumped out of the car and ran inside to the desk. I quickly told my sister was in the car and not breathing. This spurred them into action. Immediately people came out of the woodwork with a stretcher, ambu bag, and various other items in their hands. they quickly loaded her onto the stretcher and began CPR. I heard a "code blue" called on the PA system. I was scared to death.


I called my mother-in-law to let her know what had happened and then my husband. They both got to the hospital quickly. We were sitting in the waiting area when a doctor came out to update us on her condition. He said she was "status epilepticus", which meant they couldn't stop her seizure...it was continuous. They had lost her and brought her back several times, and he asked if she had been doing cocaine. "NO!" was my answer. I knew Michele had not done anything like that, but I also knew Ritalin was an amphetamine similar to cocaine. I had told my mother-in-law about Michele's ritalin use, but was afraid to say anything to the doctor. Besides, I told myself, it's been several days since she used it. Eventually they her stabilized enough to lifeflight her to a larger hospital in Memphis. I looked at my mother-in-law and said, "I'm going with you...I'll drive".


We drove almost three hours to Memphis. When we got to the hospital they would not let us see her. They said they were having trouble controlling her seizures and were directed to the hospital chapel. Several hours went by beforre anyone came to give us an update. When the doctor appeared, he had a grim look on his face. Michele had been tranferred to the critical care unit and was in a coma and on life support. The seizure in the car combined with the other ones had caused a severe lack of oxygen to her brain. He wasn't sure if she would make it, and if she did, she could possibly be severely brain damaged. They just didn't know which way it would go.

The next day they ran some tests on Michele to determine her level of brain function. They did find some deficits, but it was unknown how severe they would be until she woke up. I stayed with my mother-in-law in the critical waiting room for a few days then went home, leaving her there. I cried every day for Michele, playing that day out in my mind each time. Had I done something wrong? Was there something I should have done differently that could have improved Michele's outcome? Should I have pulled her from the car and started CPR right there on the road? The more I thought it, the more I realized I had done the only thing I could do safely. A few weeks later, I was stand ing in the kitchen washing dishes and looking out the window thinking of Michele and starting to cry. Suddenly, I heard Michele's voice, plain as day, say to me, "Cheryl, don't worry about me. I'll be alright, I'm just fighting a few of my demons right now and then I'll be back". I suddenly felt calmer and more at peace with it all. It wasn't long after that that Michele woke up. She was transferred to a rehab unit for brain injured people. She had physical impairments as well as mental ones. It had affected like a stroke. Michele had to learn how to function all over again. It was like teaching a baby to walk.

That was 11 years ago, and now Michele is living in a home for other people like herself. There are three people to a house and they all share responsibilities and are overseen by a caretaker. She has come down a very long road. Her children all graduated from high school with excellent grades, and are productive members of society. Tierra got married in October, Kendra is going to college this fall, and her son Chasden joined the military and is giving her a grandchild in June. Our family is once again complete.