No one is ever prepared for the day to come when they must grieve the death of their child, but that is exactly what I have been doing – every day since November.
Not only have I been grieving that loss, but I watch my beautiful granddaughter grow up every day without her mother – something she will be forced to do for the rest of her life.
They say time heals all wounds, but I’m unsure about this one.
Her death was completely unexpected, she was 26, no significant medical history except for the nausea she felt on the day she died. She loved her family, her daughter, friends, and coworkers – and we all love(d) her. Life on the outside seemed very “normal”, but it wasn’t. As we later discovered, her life was anything but “normal”, she had an addiction to opioids and I knew nothing. Unfortunately, this is a story that is extremely common across America and there must be more awareness; your family is NOT immune!
My husband was the one who found her the night she died, as the first responder he had to perform CPR until emergency crews arrived – it was dark and cold and crews had a difficult time finding the house, it wasn’t until I arrived and went running down the road with my arms flailing in the air that they were eventually directed to where they needed to be.
We were then instructed to move aside and give them the space they needed to work. As we went inside and prayed that God would grant us a miracle, my daughter slipped away and left us in a grief-stricken haze of complete disbelief.
A few months after her death we discovered the ambulance that responded to our call had equipment failure and a call to a backup service needed to be made. A cardiac monitor, used to help paramedics better perform life saving techniques, had a battery failure and it was unable to report critical cardiac data to the emergency crew.
The unfortunate part in this is that it was not the first time it happened- the monitor also malfunctioned 2 days prior to our call, yet the hospital still allowed the faulty equipment to be placed back into their ambulance. When I questioned the EMS manager and Clinical Quality Coordinator at NOCH about the failure, they denied any previous incidents and indicated they believe a battery issue is what caused the malfunction the night our daughter died.
I was told (by the EMS Manager) there are two batteries in each monitor, he presumes one was faulty and the other was not charged all the way. When I asked about hospital battery replacement policy I was told they have several batteries that are tested and changed out at the beginning of every shift. Any batteries that do not test well, are promptly discarded/recycled.
Our call was just shy of 2 hours after the beginning of the shift – based on their replacement policy, it’s difficult to believe both batteries drained completely in that short time.
Additionally, during our conversation it was made clear, several times, that the monitor failure was not an issue because there was an Automated External Defibrillator (AED) connected to my daughter, but my question is: if the cardiac monitor failure was not an issue, why is it a standard piece of equipment on an ambulance and why did paramedics feel the urgency to call in a backup ambulance to provide them with a functioning monitor?
There is no way for us to know if having that monitor would have saved the life of our daughter that night, but it could make the difference when someone else needs it.
NOCH needs to be held accountable for their actions, as a community we need to stand together and demand they provide an action plan showing what procedures are in place to ensure this type of thing will not happen again.
The reason for my post is two fold:
1. To spread awareness in regard to the opioid epidemic - it is in the tri-cities, it does not discriminate, and it needs to be talked about.
2. To make people aware of what happened the night of our call for emergency assistance and to ask for help in holding them accountable so we can ensure this doesn’t happen to anyone ever again.
I hope you will share - you could help save a life.
Not only have I been grieving that loss, but I watch my beautiful granddaughter grow up every day without her mother – something she will be forced to do for the rest of her life.
They say time heals all wounds, but I’m unsure about this one.
Her death was completely unexpected, she was 26, no significant medical history except for the nausea she felt on the day she died. She loved her family, her daughter, friends, and coworkers – and we all love(d) her. Life on the outside seemed very “normal”, but it wasn’t. As we later discovered, her life was anything but “normal”, she had an addiction to opioids and I knew nothing. Unfortunately, this is a story that is extremely common across America and there must be more awareness; your family is NOT immune!
My husband was the one who found her the night she died, as the first responder he had to perform CPR until emergency crews arrived – it was dark and cold and crews had a difficult time finding the house, it wasn’t until I arrived and went running down the road with my arms flailing in the air that they were eventually directed to where they needed to be.
We were then instructed to move aside and give them the space they needed to work. As we went inside and prayed that God would grant us a miracle, my daughter slipped away and left us in a grief-stricken haze of complete disbelief.
A few months after her death we discovered the ambulance that responded to our call had equipment failure and a call to a backup service needed to be made. A cardiac monitor, used to help paramedics better perform life saving techniques, had a battery failure and it was unable to report critical cardiac data to the emergency crew.
The unfortunate part in this is that it was not the first time it happened- the monitor also malfunctioned 2 days prior to our call, yet the hospital still allowed the faulty equipment to be placed back into their ambulance. When I questioned the EMS manager and Clinical Quality Coordinator at NOCH about the failure, they denied any previous incidents and indicated they believe a battery issue is what caused the malfunction the night our daughter died.
I was told (by the EMS Manager) there are two batteries in each monitor, he presumes one was faulty and the other was not charged all the way. When I asked about hospital battery replacement policy I was told they have several batteries that are tested and changed out at the beginning of every shift. Any batteries that do not test well, are promptly discarded/recycled.
Our call was just shy of 2 hours after the beginning of the shift – based on their replacement policy, it’s difficult to believe both batteries drained completely in that short time.
Additionally, during our conversation it was made clear, several times, that the monitor failure was not an issue because there was an Automated External Defibrillator (AED) connected to my daughter, but my question is: if the cardiac monitor failure was not an issue, why is it a standard piece of equipment on an ambulance and why did paramedics feel the urgency to call in a backup ambulance to provide them with a functioning monitor?
There is no way for us to know if having that monitor would have saved the life of our daughter that night, but it could make the difference when someone else needs it.
NOCH needs to be held accountable for their actions, as a community we need to stand together and demand they provide an action plan showing what procedures are in place to ensure this type of thing will not happen again.
The reason for my post is two fold:
1. To spread awareness in regard to the opioid epidemic - it is in the tri-cities, it does not discriminate, and it needs to be talked about.
2. To make people aware of what happened the night of our call for emergency assistance and to ask for help in holding them accountable so we can ensure this doesn’t happen to anyone ever again.
I hope you will share - you could help save a life.
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