Kate Fife

As many of you know, our sweet Kate experienced a ruptured basilar artery aneurysm late in the evening on August 20th.  Although they did not know what was happening Randy quickly got an ambulance and they went to CAMC.  CAMC sent her by ambulance to St. Mary's in Huntington, WV as the CT scan showed the aneurysm.  The aneurysm was 12 millimeters (about the size of a nickle-large),  of the basilar artery and at the junction between two arteries.  On Monday, The Interventional Radiologist was able to go in and put a coil into the aneurysm and a stent in one of the arteries.  The second artery is curvy and they were not able to get that stent in.  The stent helps to hold the coil in place.  


Late Monday afternoon the Interventional Radiologist had to go back in - the artery was open, the aneurysm was "1,000" percent better.  There was a clot formed on the stent that they addressed.  She has been kept intubated and sedated for the last 24 hours as the brain and the rest of her body heals.  At each point when the sedation wears out they gauge her reaction.  Kate is fighting!  She is responding to some verbal commands and has mouthed "take it out" to the nurse.  She is at times breathing over the vent - these are all good signs.  


The CT scan today - Tuesday, August 22nd shows that at some point Kate experienced a small stroke somewhere in the process.  Nothing that needs to be treated at this time.  


The physicians, of which she has several - Interventional Radiologist, Neurologist, Neurosurgeon, Pulmonary Critical Care.. all coordinating her care. Our understanding from the physicians is that Kate's condition is critical and precarious, but she is showing positive signs of progress.  She will continue to be here in ICU for at least two weeks.  No additional surgeries are planned at this moment. 


The next step will be to transition her off of the vent to a CPAP where she will breath on her own.  They are closely watching and discussing this transition. They are keeping her sedated and all aspects including her BP as normal as possible prior to making the transition to the CPAP.  They simply do not know at this time the impact of the aneurysm or stroke.  


Randy, Abby, Wilson, Vicki, John and all of her sisters feel abundantly loved and supported by all of you.  We appreciate the outpouring of love and prayers and can feel  your support and love and know that will be critical to Kate's recovery.  We anticipate that this will be a long recovery but we are confident that we'll make it through it because many of you are doing all that you can to make sure that we do.  


For right now, we just need your continued love, support and most importantly prayers for Kate.  Randy is a rock and Kate's greatest advocate and we're all just focused on getting her better.  At this time she is at an increased risk for an additional stroke and they have advised that her environment should remain quiet and calming.  We'll continue to provide updates here and when she's ready to see all of your wonderful smiling faces we'll be sure to let you know.  











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