Val McCarty

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For those of you that don't know Val was on vacation at the Oregon coast when she fell in her hotel and was taken to the hospital later that evening(3/30/18). After being seen in the Salem Hospital ER she was admitted.  After being admitted they reaffirmed that her degenerative spine disease and scolioses had caused a pinched nerve which has given her something called "drop foot" in her right foot. Drop foot means that physically she is unable to flex her foot. She was moved to Inpatient Rehab at Salem Hospital on Wednesday (4/3/18). She began rehab and was making great progress with her physical therapy and occupational therapy and that continued to progress through the week. Late Saturday night (3/31/18) Val's nurses called her daughter Kim and son-in-law Rolf to tell them that she was in distress, she was nauseas and had pain in her abdomen. On Sunday afternoon (4/1/18) the doctors found through x-rays that Val had a blockage in her bowels. Doctors decided that the best option was to put a suction tube down through her nose and down through her throat into her stomach to hopefully help break up the blockage. On Monday morning (4/9/18) Val was moved out of her rehab room and back into a general hospital room. She   continued to be in pain and nauseous at times, so a contrast CT scan was ordered. As she was drinking her contrast to prepare she began having problems breathing and went into respiratory distress. The nurses decided that she had aspirated on her contrast liquid and needed to be put on a bi-pap machine to help her breathing. Her doctor decided that she needed to be moved to the ICU for the night for constant monitoring of her breathing. So on Monday evening  (4/9/18) Val was moved to ICU, the doctors and nurses got her settled. The ICU doctor recommended that Val be intubated and put on a ventilator to help clear the contrast liquid out of her lungs and to help her breathe better. Val agreed that the intubation and ventilation was a good idea to help her get better. Val was intubated and put on a ventilator to help her lungs. Her blood pressure and oxygen levels dropped rapidly and her nurse caught this immediately so they could try to stabilize her. At that time Val's ICU doctor decided that she would benefit from the special ICU team and ventilator from Emmanuel Hospital in Portland, and requested that they come to assess her. The Emmanuel team arrived at Salem Hospital at about 4am Tuesday (4/10/18) and proceeded to assess Val and  put her on their ventilator that is different and more efficient for Val's lungs. They moved her to their ventilator and made sure her vitals were stable with that and then decided that she was doing good enough to safely make the transport to Emmanuel Hospital in Portland. Once she arrived here safe and sound she was set up in a room and they began to monitor her and come up with the game plan; at this time they are continuing to monitor her critical care and we are continuing to pray. We have been receiving great care at both facilities and are thankful for them.