Shaila’s Story

Site created on October 19, 2020

On October 17th, 2020 Shaila started having Breathing issues at her apartment. She took her breathing treatment as expected and it wasn't helping. She knew she was in trouble and told her friends that were at the apartment with her. They immediately called 911. They noticed that her lips turned blue and she looked at them and said something was wrong with her heart before she lost consciousness. CPR was started on her and they continued while transporting her to the hospital. Even after she got to the hospital they continued to bring her back. We are not clear on how long she was without oxygen to her brain. We are thinking around 5 min. At one point They called Time of Death. Then one of the nurses walked back into the room after a few moments and noticed that Shaila tried to take a breath and she checked for a pulse and found a faint one. So, at that point they went back to working on her until they got her Heart pumping on its own!!

They continued to monitor and put her in ICU. She was intubated to help her breath and put on a heart monitor.  At one point her heart was not beating regularly and they said that she had a Torsade’s Heart beat ( which means it was not beating regularly) So their main focus was to get her heart beating consistently. She also was having multiple seizures, so she was put on seizure medication to get them to stop. The neurologist stated that seizures were a normal thing to happen when someone had gone as long as she had without oxygen. It is also a sign of Brain Damage.  Also, her lungs were showing signs of what they called Glass Lung. Which is something we were told could be from Asthma, Bronchitis , or Covid-19.  She was given a Covid-19 test and that came back Negative. (Counting those blessings! )

Sunday night they took her off the Seizure medication and she was able to not have seizures after Sunday night Oct 18th.

On Monday October 19th she was moved to an area in ICU that was away from the covid-19 patients since her test come back negative. We were able to talk to the Neurologist about what the plan was for Shaila. He stated that their first priority is to let the body heal the lungs, heart and other organs that might have been damaged. Then they are wanting to monitor the EEG that Shaila is hooked up to daily. And they will be doing an MRI on her brain on Tuesday October 20, 2020 After 3-5 days they will then begin to access where Shaila is at for Brain damage and then we will decide where to go from there.

The hospital only allows one person in to visit her. ( this is for the entire stay- we are hoping that since her dad Kevin flew down to be with her from Oregon on Saturday that they will make a variance for this rule. We have requested it. We are still waiting as of Monday night to see if they will let him be in her room) Shaila’s mom, Angela is listed as the one person that can go in and see her. Only Certain people are allowed to call the hospital to get updates about Shaila. Please respect this as the ICU staff are very busy caring for the critical patience and pulling the nurse away to get a report takes away precious time from them. So, we will do our best to update this page as much as we can. Please know that sometimes there will be times where there is no change.

 

Please be patient and continue to send well wishes, happy thoughts, prays and love!! 


This page will be updated and ran by her Aunt Michelle. And the Story is told based on what was told to her and her time there with Shaila and the family. 






Newest Update

Journal entry by Michelle Granger Giard

Today's update is the one we hoped we'd never have to write as Shaila's Mom, Angela, and I had to make the choice to rip our own hearts out. We have to let our baby girl go. There was simply too much damage done to her brain. We were told at best some day she may open her eyes. We listened we cried and agreed. Those of you who really know Shaila know how full of life, and excitement she is. She would never recognize or hold Caroline Jo, or any of us and we know in our heart of hearts she would hate that "life". In keeping up with her spirit of looking out for other people she is an organ donor. The gift of her will help so that other families can avoid this day and hopefully transfer some of her spirit into others, and they can spread it through the world. Lets all face it, the world needs more Shailas in it. Thank all of you so much for all the love and support given through this ordeal. Believe me, it has been felt by all of us and we have been absolutely overwhelmed by it. I am just sorry for all who love her that it wasn't the outcome we'd hoped for. Go out in your yard, grow some sunflowers and you know she will be there
Thanks with love
Kevin and Angela
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