Near Death Experience

Note: Although a serious story, everyone survives in the end.

Rebecca:

Wednesday we drove to southern California for a visit with my Family. We arrived there shortly after midnight, got the kids unloaded, showed them the various places that were available for them to lay down and we all went to sleep.

Thursday morning we spent the morning just being lazy. We got our clothes out of the van and got the kids dressed, and after awhile Kyle and I went to the supermarket to get some lunch foods to feed our kids. We came back fed the kids some lunch then Kyle and I went off to our favorite stores that we don’t have here in Utah, such as Fry’s Electronics, and Hilo Hati (which actually isn’t there anymore 🙁 ). When we got back to my parent’s house all the kids were in their bathing suits and they wanted to go in the pool, so I got my new bathing suit on, braided my hair and we went out to open the pool gate. My parent’s pool has two parts, the spa which is usually where the kids play because the little kids can stand on the seat in the spa and be above the water, and the bigger kids can stand on the floor and still be above water. And the pool which has a shallow end that is about 3 feet deep, and the deep end gets to 9 feet deep. The kids are always instructed to stay completely away from the deep end at all times. In the spa, Tyra decided to get brave, plug her nose, and put her head completely below the water. Then she came up and said “I did it! I went underwater!” She was so excited that she could hold her breath and put her head completely under the water.

After watching the kids for a little bit, my dad came out and handed me his cell phone. Jenny had tried calling my cell but, obviously, I was outside watching the kids in the pool and didn’t have my cell phone with me. So I talked to her for a bit. Then Kyle came outside with Chloe and I asked him to watch the kids in the pool while I went to return my dad’s cell phone to him. I went inside and gave it to him and then we started talking about what Jenny had wanted, and our plans for our trip….then Kyle came inside! Which freaked me out. I left him to watch the kids in the POOL! And he left them alone out there and came inside. So I relocated to the living room door that leads out to the pool because from there I could still talk to dad, but I could still see the kids and tell them when they are getting too close to danger and all that jazz. And after awhile Dad had to leave to go get Tiffany from school, and it was just Kyle, mom and I in the living room. Kyle and I both were standing by the back door watching the kids in the pool.

This is where the rest of the day gets fuzzy. I turned to Kyle and asked him to watch the kids while I went to go get some popsicles to entice them to come out of the pool for awhile. Then I went to the garage to get the popsicles, then I went out the family room door which is closer to the pool gate and that’s where the picnic table is. I called the kids telling them that it was popsicle time. Ethan came from inside the house, and Dinah and Jeremy came running from the pool area. But Tyra didn’t come. So I figured she was playing and being stubborn so I went to get her. That’s when I saw that she was in the middle/deep area of the shallow end (so now she was in water deeper than 3 feet but still nowhere near the deep end of the pool). At first it looked like she was standing on the bottom of the pool, which made me think that she was practicing her standing underwater trick that she learned earlier that afternoon. So I called to her, and she didn’t respond. Then I noticed that she appeared to be starting to float, and I thought to myself that maybe she had figured out how to swim. I had never taken swimming lessons, I had been taught by mom, dad, and grandpa Zig some basics then I figured the rest out on my own. But then she wasn’t coming up for air, her arms were floating away from her body, and then I saw the bubbles coming up from her mouth! That’s when I jumped in. Kyle said that I was by her side in one stoke (which isn’t hard to do jumping off the pool steps into the shallow end). And I don’t remember ANYTHING from the time I jumped into the water to the time that Tyra was sitting on the concrete pool deck after I got her out. Kyle says that I just swept her up and nearly flew out of the pool. I vaguely remember Kyle taking Tyra from me, he was holding Chloe though so I don’t know what he did with her. He put her up on his shoulder then hugged her pretty tight so see if that would help get some of the water out of her. She threw up a lot of water over his shoulder. I called my mom while Kyle had Tyra. She didn’t realize that I NEEEDED HER so she went to the other room to put the baby that she baby sits down before heading out to the pool to find out what I needed. Kyle set Tyra down on the concrete. I can’t remember if she was conscious or not when I pulled her out of the water, but when he set her down she was sitting, not laying limp…but she could not stand, she was too weak. I noticed that her lips were turning blue and that she was foaming at the mouth. But after the first initial water vomit, she started screaming “I can’t breathe!” Which of course the simple fact that she was screaming indicated to me that she WAS in fact getting air now which was somewhat comforting to me. When mom finally got over to us, she picked Tyra up and used her legs to help Tyra stand, and she bent over and wrapped her arms around Tyra and started to feel for a heartbeat, which she said that she did not feel at all. She proceeded to massage Tyra’s tummy because it was quite hard, and when Tyra relaxed her tummy to inhale, mom would use that moment to do the Heimlich maneuver to try to get the water out. I stood there watching, just full of the jitters. I didn’t know what to do. I thought of doing the Heimlich but then thought, there isn’t anything stuck halfway down so what would that do??? But after a few minutes of watching mom with Tyra, Tyra threw up a whole bunch of water (and a couple of apple pieces from her lunch….), then mom said Tyra’s heart beat went from non-existent to racing.

After that we led Tyra over to the picnic table, got all the other kids out of the pool fence and locked the gate. I wrapped Tyra in a towel and mom sat her on her lap. And I’m actually amazed that the popsicles didn’t melt during this whole ordeal. But I passed out popsicles to Ethan, Jeremy, Dinah and Chloe, while mom got Tyra dressed, and Kyle called the insurance to find out where to take her, because mom felt that she should be monitored (considering her heart beat was NOT there, then it went crazy) and I felt that she should be checked to make sure we got all the water out of her lungs. The insurance gave him the phone numbers for two urgent care clinics and he proceeded to call them. The first stops taking patients at about 4, and by this time it was about 4:15. So he went on to call the other one they were available until 7pm. They gave him directions and since I was wet and still really flustered over the whole incident, Kyle took Tyra, while I stayed at the house to help watch the rest of our kids.

Kyle:

The doctor was at the Lincoln/State College shopping center, where we spent countless hours shopping in my youth.  The drive seemed to take forever, and Tyra kept trying to doze off in the van, but I didn’t want her falling asleep not knowing if that would have negative effects on her, so I talked to her the whole drive, to keep her awake.  We got to the doctor and they got us inside immediately.  He was a nice middle eastern man, who said Tyra seemed okay, and did some tests (checked her Oxygen levels, and even did a chest x-ray), and thought she was okay, but still didn’t feel confident with sending her home after her ordeal, so he asked us to wait around while he observed her.

Tyra sat patiently, with the Oxygen sensor on her big toe (better reading), asking why we were there, and if we could escape.  I told her no, and tried to explain what the doctor was doing.  He eventually came back, and suggested I take her to the ER for proper observation, and suggested I use the Anaheim Regional Medical Center, on La Palma and West (we drove by there almost every day of my life, and we never had to go inside).  I drove Tyra there, this time putting her in the front seat so I could keep a better eye on her.  She started frantically saying she had to pee, and we got to the hospital and I brought her inside the ER, to get her to the toilet just on time.

I didn’t enjoy the stay in the ER at all.  I went back out and waited in the line with other people, to be told to fill out a clipboard with some basic information.  They said they’d call me up, but it took over an hour before they did.  Looking around the room, I had a hard time not feeling critical about the other people in there, most of them having no apparent problems.  There was a man in a wheelchair who was throwing up (he arrived when Tyra was peeing), but no other signs of anyone with an emergency.  While we sat, Tyra’s temperature started to rise, and she fell asleep in my arms, even though I tried to keep her awake.  I grew impatient waiting for everyone else in that room to be called in before they called me up to the window to ask why I was there, then had me sit down; then called me into a room to ask why I was there (and to tell me Tyra had a fever, and give her children’s tylenol), then send me back out to wait again, promising we’d be next to be seen.

Finally, after two hours of sitting in the waiting room, they called us back and gave Tyra a bed, then asked her to do a urine test, and took some blood. (the needle turned out to be an IV needle that they used to give her antibiotics)  I sat there while they reviewed the tests, and looked at the x-ray I brought, and said they needed to do another one, so they wheeled Tyra down to the x-ray room to have her sit on an x-ray bed, and take a couple of her chest, then brought her back to the main room to wait.  There really wasn’t that much to mention, and I started feeling tired after the long ordeal, then having to sit there doing nothing while they checked the results.  She wanted to escape again.  I put on So You Think You Can Dance, so she could be slightly distracted (no good shows on the TV there), and eventually they said they wanted her to spend the night in CHOC, since their hospital didn’t have capabilities to look after children.

Hindsight: if we had simply called 911 at the beginning, we could have avoided most of the hassle of that night.  We had no idea what would have happened, of course.

Rebecca:

I pretty much sat in the living room almost the whole time Kyle and Tyra were gone. Mom kept coming in to see if there was any information. It was driving us both crazy to not know what was going on. Mom ended up starting dinner late, since they didn’t have enough bratwurst for everyone and dad had to go buy a couple more packages before mom would get it started. But while Dad was at the store I asked Tiffany to get started on washing and chopping the potatoes. Needless to say, dinner was very late that night and Jeremy, Dinah and Chloe were all asleep before it was ready. So really dad didn’t need to buy two more packages of bratwurst (one more probably would have been enough). I had my phone with me at the dinner table and just a few minutes after I started eating dinner he texted me saying “Can you get down here? They want to transfer her to CHOC in Orange for the night. I don’t know if I can stay the whole night but don’t want to leave the megavan.” I read the text out loud and Dad jumped out of his chair ready to take me. I ran and got my purse and we were on our way. On the way I asked dad if he would help give Tyra a blessing, since I figured that thought probably hadn’t even crossed Kyle’s mind.

We got to the hospital and dad let me out at the ER entrance so that I could go in while he parked the car. I spoke to the man at the counter. He told me which bed Tyra was in and then let me in through the door.

She looked so pathetic sitting there on her bed, in a tiny hospital gown with an IV in one arm and an oxygen sensor on a finger of her other hand. I sat there for a couple of minutes while Kyle told me what has happened during the afternoon, then I told him that I would like for him and Dad to give Tyra a blessing, but that meant that I had to go back out to the waiting room and let dad in since they wouldn’t let him in too because Tyra already had two visitors. After the blessing Dad came back out to the waiting room so that I could go back to Tyra. Kyle said that the doctors were just waiting for CHOC to call back. They were waiting for a bed to open up. Of course Kyle and I were thinking “how likely is it for them to release a child from the hospital this late at night so that a bed will be open for Tyra????” Since dad was waiting and I didn’t want him to be sitting out there completely in the dark and not knowing what’s going on with us in the ER, I sent Kyle out to tell Dad that we are sitting here waiting for a phone call from CHOC before they can move her. Kyle was gone a few minutes when a few people walked up to Tyra’s bed and said that they were her transport from CHOC!!! So they started asking me a few questions. Some of which I didn’t have the answers for since Kyle had been the one with her the whole time she was in urgent care and in the ER. So I asked them if I could go out and let him know that they were here. I went out to the waiting room. And Kyle and Dad WEREN’T there! So I was looking around just to make sure in my excited state that I hadn’t just not seen them, and the security guard said “they went that way” and pointed to the door. Which I thought was really odd, because I had not seen that security guard at all in the times that I had been in the waiting room, and how could he possibly know WHO I was looking for when he had not seen me with dad or me with Kyle. But I figured I might as well go where he pointed and look rather than stand there in the waiting room looking like an idiot.

Kyle and Dad had gone outside to the van to get some Tylenol for Kyle’s headache. And I saw them on their way back to the waiting room. I told Kyle to hurry because the CHOC transport was here (which I guess should have been obvious to him since he was walking past the CHOC ambulance at the moment). But we went back into the waiting room and the security guard would not let us back into the ER until we had these cheap paper bracelets on saying what day we were here….I guess they were just to show security WHO was allowed in the ER. It didn’t matter to him that we told him that she’s getting in an ambulance and going to CHOC right now! He insisted on putting the bracelets on THEN he let us in. When we got back to Tyra’s bed they started asking Kyle questions and one of us moved Tyra from the ER bed to the ambulance gurney. They proceeded to seat belt her onto it, and her ER nurse came over to say bye to her (since Tyra is so bubbly that she makes friends everywhere she goes). And we were off. I offered to relieve Kyle since he had been with her all afternoon, so I rode in the front of the ambulance while Kyle took the van back to my parent’s house.

The ride to CHOC was slow and uneventful. Her transport team parked unloaded her and wheeled her into the hospital still on the gurney. We went up in the elevator to the 5th floor, and her room was room 517. She was lucky to get the room right next to the play room. 🙂 The transport team unbuckled her from the gurney and had me pick her up and move her to the hospital bed. Her nurses came in shortly after we got there and they hooked her oxygen sensor up to the monitor and they showed her how to push the button to get help from a nurse. And they showed her which button to push to turn on the light. They brought me some water and asked me to them what had happened that afternoon, so I had to relive the whole incident for every nurse, every assistant and every doctor that came in. Which considering the time of night that we got there it was just too late for all this. The nurse got Tyra some of those cool hospital socks to keep her toes warm (and to help keep her from slipping on the way to the bathroom). Then they left saying the doctor would be in, in a little bit. I think it was about 1:30 in the morning when the doctor came in. I had to relive the incident for her as well then she went on to listen to Tyra’s lungs, and then ANOTHER doctor came in. She started asking me questions and I asked her if I had to retell the story YET AGAIN for her and she said “no that’s ok I’ll just get it from her” But then she proceeded to ask me questions that the answers would not have made any sense if I didn’t tell her WHAT HAPPENED. So I ended up having to repeat the story for her too. Then she proceeded with the other Dr to check Tyra out. Tyra of course by this point was asleep, and the doctor was concerned when Tyra wasn’t responding to them. HELLO it’s 1:30 in the morning! And Tyra hadn’t had a nap that day she was downright tired. So the Dr felt better when I said that she was responding just fine while she was at the urgent care and the ER and that she’s just REALLY tired right now. I also mentioned to the Dr that the ER Dr said she had an ear infection. And both of these Dr’s took a look and said it looked kind of red like it was irritated but there was no puss, so there was no infection. Then after the Dr’s left I tried to get some sleep too.

In the morning her nurse and nurse’s assistant came in around 6:00 or so to change her sheets, so that she would have dry sheets.  I don’t know how they knew that she wets the bed, or maybe it’s that they work with a lot of children and sometimes children just wet the bed so they just automatically change the sheets for everyone in the early hours of the morning??? But after they changed her bedding they put some cute little pants on her that matched her little hospital gown. Then she went back to sleep, since 6:00 was just too early to be waking up considering how little sleep we got that night.

Her new nurse came on at 7 that morning and they got me a menu so I could order her breakfast, and they gave a couple of beany babies, and a packet of coloring pages and a handful of crayons, and some stickers, and they gave her a cute fairy book to read. Dad brought Kyle down to sit with Tyra again so that I could go to Tiffany’s high school graduation and they arrived shortly after they brought Tyra’s breakfast up. Kyle stayed with her until they released her that afternoon around 3 or so.  She had so much fun in the playroom though that she didn’t want to go home. The only part of going home that she was really looking forward to was the fact that they were going to take her IV out. But they would NOT do that until very last.

While Kyle was out of the room taking care of release papers and that kind of thing, I asked Tyra if she remembered what had happened in the pool. She said “I was trying to get the bucket, but it floated away, so I walked towards it, then the ground disappeared, and I started to sink, and I was in the water for 15 minutes.” I know that she wasn’t in the water for 15 minutes so I told her she was only in the water for maybe a minute or two, but when you’re scared a minute can feel like forever.

Later when talking to Kyle about the incident, I was retelling the story how I know it, but he told me that when I said that I was going to get popsicles he thought I was getting them because the kids were out of the pool and he didn’t realize they were still in the water. So he wasn’t watching them like I had asked him to. I guess he was listening for them, but wasn’t physically watching them. And since Tyra basically walked into the water and went under there was no sound to indicate that she was in trouble.

I’m just glad that I went out there when I did, and was able to get her out. I’m glad that she’s still here with us. I’m not angry that this happened. I understand that there must be opposition in all things. We cannot know what it is to be happy and have joy unless we know what the opposite feels like. Without feeling the fear of losing her, I could not fully feel the joy of having her still be with us. And I’m SO glad that this won’t be my last post about Tyra. 😉