In memory of Kathleen and what happened to her

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For anyone who is reading this and does not know, we lost our mother, Kathleen on April 3rd, 2010. It was the day before Easter and she died at the Everett Transitional Care Unit, which was a rehab place associated with Providence Hospital in Everett, WA.

Mom had many medical issues from her diagnoses of Essential Thrombocytosis back in 1988 to her recent diagnoses in 2009 of Progressive Supranuclear Palsy. The PSP was a neurological disorder and the ET was a blood disorder. PSP caused her to fall and injure herself, which was lethal given her blood disorder. The blood disorder finally reacted to a traumatic fall by developing thrombosis (which eventually got infected in Mexico). After being hospitalized in two different Mexican hospitals and receiving blood transfusions and various antibiotics Leon and I were able to fly Mom home to the United States. She was admitted to the Providence Hospital ER the night we arrived and she had emergency surgery a few hours later. She was misdiagnosed in Mexico as having celllulitis, when she in fact had fournier's gangrene. Fournier's gangrene is a horrible bacterial infection that kills flesh and invades the soft tissues. Unfortunately, the infection was so bad that they had to remove a large amount of tissue which necessitated a sigmoid colostomy in order to keep the wound area clean for healing. Later, a stomach feeding tube was also inserted because she could not take in any food by mouth, or at least not enough food by mouth to heal the wound.

This all sounds very gross and it was horrible not only for us to see but incredibly painful for Mom. The whole event was so traumatic that it sped up her neurological disease robbing her of the ability to swallow, eat or hardly speak . Her blood went haywire as well, with her body rejecting her normal medications to control her platelet levels. She had severe anemia along with the thrombosis which was why she was needing blood transfusions every 2 or 3 days. In Mexico, her blood type was not found as she had O negative, a rare type. Thomas, my youngest brother was flown down to donate his blood since he shared her blood type. Having surgery was not an option in Mexico even if we had had the correct diagnoses of Fournier's gangrene. Getting her out of Mexico was her only chance and had we really known what we were up against, we would have tried to air evac her out in between her stay at the CMQ-premier hospital and the Medasist hospital. When I arrived to Mexico, she was in between hospitals and I was just trying to assess the situation when all of a sudden she was back in another Mexican hospital. Mom could hardly walk and I remember thinking, she should not be here..she should be home, but how can we (Leon and I) get her home when she's got all these issues going on? It was only by the grace of God that we were able to eventually get her on a plane and back to the U.S.

I know my mother loved Mexico, but being in Mexico contributed greatly to her untimely death. Even if she had fallen in the states and developed thrombosis, she would not have needed all those surgeries. In the end, her heart is what gave way...the whole thing was just too much for her heart. I miss my mother every day. My habit of calling her 2 or 3 times a week is over and just wanting to talk to her constantly invades my thoughts. The grief is unbearable at times. She was a pillar in our family, well admired in her Financial Planning field and a good friend to many people. She was loved by so many and she is missed by everyone who knew and loved her. She was so much to our family. My brothers, Stephen and Thomas are heartbroken and I know my step father, Leon is too. His children Patrick and Nicole and their families will also miss her tremendously.

I'm not sure what I will do with this blog.. I think I want to save her writings for now so that I can bring them together is some kind of format to pass down to our kids. If you are reading this and you have more questions about Mom, I can be reached at [e-mail]

Laura

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Photos

Mom
a beautiful photo of Mom taken a few years ago in Puerto Vallarta