Shirley Bailey

Welcome to our CaringBridge website. We are using it to keep family and friends updated in one place. We appreciate your support and words of hope and encouragement. Thank you for visiting.


As you all know, my mom was admitted to UCLA Medical Center on Thursday February 22nd. She was admitted to UCLA for fibrotic lung disease which is a non-reversible chronic condition. She has been battling interstitial lung disease for 8-9 years but it has gotten progressively worse over the last 12 months. She was referred to UCLA for evaluation of her disease and the possibility of a lung transplant. She underwent a lung biopsy on February 7th and suffered a pneumothorax (collapsed lung) immediately following the procedure. This was a known complication but it was a minimal risk and the Doctors felt the benefit was greater than the risk. After her lung collapsed she had to have a chest tube placed and was admitted to UCLA Santa Monica for 5 days. When she was being discharged home she didn't feel well but the general feeling was that she would continue to improve and more rapidly if she was able to get back to her own home. Two days later she was having an extremely difficult time breathing so a chest x-ray was ordered and she was admitted into the CICU at Mission Hospital. As the days passed while she was at the hospital it became very evident that she needed to be moved to a higher level of care and someplace that would be able to perform a lung transplant. We had to wait for a bed to become available at UCLA so we spent 8 days in CICU praying for an open bed. Our prayers were answered and we were able to move.


Unfortunately, when she is moved around, she becomes very anxious as I am sure it feels like she is suffocating. In order to make the transfer as smooth as possible everyone agreed that it would be in her best interest to place her on life support. However, we did this knowing that there was a chance that we would not be able to get her off of life support after transfer. She continues to improve and we are hoping to get her of the ventilator this weekend. She is able to communicate with us through writing on a white board.


We as a family are so appreciative of all of the love, prayers, support, thoughts, meals, etc.... It is truly overwhelming.


At this time, I will update this site as often as things change to keep everyone informed. I ask that you direct any questions to me and to keep texts to my Dad at a minimum. He is very humbled by all that are reaching out but very are very worried about him as well.


THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!!!!!!


Keep the prayers coming.