Blog 2

        Three years ago, my mom almost lost her life. The surgeon even told her had she come in to the hospital one minute later, she wouldn't be alive right now.

        It happened maybe six months after opening up her own hair salon in downtown New Philadelphia. On a Saturday, her busiest day of the week, my aunt had brought her daughter in for an eyebrow wax and just to talk and hang out for a bit. The night before, Friday, my mom had just found out that she was pregnant. Having gotten her tubes tied twelve years prior, she thought she was done thinking about having babies. However, she knew the slightest chance of getting pregnant was still there.

        As Mom is talking to her sister about it all, she has the urge to use the restroom. The bathroom door had a hook lock at eye level to the average person. When my mom went to stand up, she became very dizzy and collapsed right in the restroom. No one knew anything was wrong.

        The next thing she remembers is somehow getting out of the bathroom and into our back room of the salon. She yelled for my aunt and my aunt went running to find her, thinking she was still in the bathroom. My aunt decided to call 911 for an ambulance because they were just around the corner from the salon. While they were on their way, my sister, who was only nine or ten at the time, shut down the salon and made phone calls to everyone that needed to know about the situation immediately.

        When the ambulance got there, they treated my mom as if she only had the flu and was just acting like a baby about it. One man told her to sit herself up, but she could hardly move and was experiencing convulsions. Once they finally decided to take it seriously, they drove her to Union Hospital and rushed her into the ER and my sister was taken home.

        The surgeon told my mom that her tube burst and she was filling up with blood fast. They couldn't see the baby anymore (they were basically "going in blind", as the surgeon put it), but the primary concern was my mom's health.

        My aunts, uncles, grandma, and my mom's husband and best friend were at the hospital as soon as they could to be there for my mom.

        Finally, late that night, Mom was allowed to return home. I could not believe that someone that nearly died was permitted to leave the hospital that same day.

        We all did our best to keep peace and quiet in the house, even my little step-brother, who was three or four at the time. Of course he wanted to cuddle with Mommy, he hadn't seen her all day! But he knew that she wasn't feeling very well and decided to just tell her he loved her..

        Mom lost a baby that day, but we were all just thankful that we didn't lose her.

        I wish I could say I was there to help my mom that day, but the news came to me in bits and pieces. My mom and sister eventually told me the whole story, but there won't be a day that I don't regret not being there for her.