June 18th was my sister's birthday. She lives in California and I was able to give her a call extending our greetings and good wishes.
I was post op day #9 from a total hip revision. I had undergone my first total hip at age 37 due to developmental hip dysplasia and the parts needed to be replaced now at age 55, 18 years since the original. All was going well and it had been an uneventful recovery.
We had actually gone out to dinner for the first time since I had returned home from the hospital. We went to our favorite Tex-Mex eatery.
After dinner my son went with his girlfriend to a movie and my wife, daughter and I went home. We were all just relaxing. I was on a recliner and was writing, my daughter was watching a TV show and my wife was sitting reading her kindle with our toy poodle, Dwight, sitting on her lap.
At a few minutes before 9 pm my daughter noticed that my wife had slumped over to the side and was unresponsive.
I tried to assess and revive her and my daughter called 911 right away.
The rescue squad arrived and did ACLS and she was taken to our local emergency room.
She was in PEA ( pulseless electrical activity) on arrival and had decorticate posturing.
A blood pressure was eventually reestablished but after greater than 25 minutes of cerebral hypoxia.
After 4 days of interventions she still had no significant brain stem function.
Life support was discontinued and she died with us at her bedside within minutes.
The day was no different than so many others in our life up until a few minutes before 9 pm.
Our world as we know it was shattered.
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