On Saturday, April 16th David’s sister, Janet Henthorn, suffered a massive heart attack. She was at the emergency vet’s office when it happened for which many of us are grateful that she was that much closer to where the paramedics could get to her. Janet was taken to the Oklahoma Heart Hospital in Oklahoma City. Her doctors immediately put two stints and a balloon into the right aorta of her heart. She remained on the balloon pump as it assisted her heart in beating, one pump for one beat, until on Monday she had been weaned from it and the pump was removed.
For those who know Janet (and for those who may not), she is the eternal optimist and the one you can always count on to be there for you. She is compassionate, practical and pragmatic; always the first one to tell you that you need to take care of yourself. Janet has always been there in support as those in her life have faced personal tragedy, family and/or health challenges, work challenges, and so many of the trials of life.
Janet was released from the hospital on Wednesday, April 20th to go home. Her job was to rest and recuperate until she would be strong enough for surgery to repair the damage in her heart. There is a process for all of us who face major health issues. As we progress through the emotions of disbelief (this can’t be happening to me), anger (Why is this happening to me?), and fear (what will happen to me now) we all, hopefully, get to the determination stage and vow to do everything possible to get well. This is, as many are aware, often a full time job to do. Janet was elated to be home on Wednesday evening and I know she was in contact by phone, text and email with many of her friends. I believe that many understood she was progressing through some of these stages because, as always, that optimism was heard in her voice and writings. There just was not enough time for Janet to work through all the normal emotions for her situation.
On Thursday morning, April 21st, her heart again began to fail. Her husband, Jim, called 911 and she was taken immediately back to the Oklahoma Heart Hospital. Her husband Jim actually beat the ambulance as he contacted her brother, David, to come immediately back. While in the ER, Janet’s heart stopped and she was down for 30 minutes as the ER staff worked to revive her. We know she was shocked 15 times. Immediately following this event her doctor placed a third stint in her right aorta, reinserted the balloon pump and added a temporary pace maker. Thursday afternoon, her heart went into sinus rhythm and again she was revived by cardiac massage and this time only two shocks.
Her doctor’s decided to place her in a Therapeutic Induced Hypothermia, lowering her body temperature to 33 °C which is equal to 91.4 °F. Her thighs and abdomen were wrapped in water blankets where cooled water was gradually moving her body temperature down. Additionally cold water was circulated into her veins. The process took several hours and the time was marked at 5:15 pm Thursday which was exactly when they would allow the process to reverse 24 hours later and allow her body to warm again. Through this time there has been equipment on her ankles that help circulation and she was placed on a ventilator. Janet was given drugs that placed her in a state of paralysis and sedatives strong enough so she would not wake through this procedure. She also has a central line allowing immediate change and delivery of medications. Yes, this has been an induced coma. The purpose was to allow the blood to flow through her heart and brain with as much oxygen as possible___ and with as little strain on or work from her heart as possible.
There is a wonderful website that has been published by the only family who has ever been through this process two times at OHH. It has been written from the family’s perspective and the nurses at OHH really recommend it for family and friends….. http://bigchillsurvivor.com/wordpress/?page_id=2 Janet will not go through the process again. The patient who went through this 2x did so on two separate incidents many months apart. I know you will find this web site informative to understand what Janet has been through and amazing in that the medicine is incredible. Since the time that Janet has arrived at the OHH on Thursday morning she has been tended round the clock by a single nurse. The nurses have been incredible. They never leave her side unless they slip over to the desk to order a medication. While with her they are constantly monitoring her, mixing her medications, remixing them and seeking the right combination that will work for her. They have told us that the right combination is different for each person. We were at one point informed that they were using every medication available to them to control Janet’s blood pressure. And the ‘control’ has been the search to keep it high enough for her. Additionally they are monitoring her sedation meds, pain meds, so many it is impossible for us to count. The cooling process has caused her to be puffy, much as if she were on a large dose of steroids. This may become some worse before it gets better even after she is warmed. The nurses are also monitoring the output of the fluids and so far that too has been at good levels. Her blood sugar has been a great concern, at one point hitting 635 caused by the Epinephrine that was necessary for maintaining her blood pressure. High blood sugar makes the blood thicker and more difficult to circulate. We were all joyful when her blood sugar was worked down to below 250.
On Friday afternoon, Janet’s heart again went into a sinus rhythm (ventricular fibrillation) and once again she was revived with cardiac massage and this time with only one shock. More, her blood pressure came right back up, a positive sign our nurses told us.
The warming process was not totally completed until 3:00pm on Saturday afternoon, April 23rd. But it was about 1:30 when she first tried to wake up. She had been off all sedatives since some time the night before, but at one point they had to be added back to allow her to relax and control her blood pressure and heart rate. When she was beginning to wake her nurse began talking to her and asking her to open her eyes, then she grabbed each of her family members and asked for help. We all talked with her, telling her not to try to talk because of the ventilator tube but just to be calm and open her eyes. She tried very hard to do it. She did return a squeeze on command of first her right hand then her left. We know waking up this way had to be terrifying for her. Her nurse was carefully monitoring both blood pressure and heart rate as David talked with her, telling her where she was, that she was in good care, that we needed her help to calm herself down. We, the family, found great hope in this progress and our nurse was pleased, although careful to warn us not to be too overly optimistic yet.
We were warned Saturday night, as we have been Sunday and today as well that Janet could go into another ‘event’ and have to be revived again but that they expect it now to be like the last one was, with hopefully only one shock and a quick return of her blood pressure.
As of today, Monday, April 25th, her doctors would like her to wake up naturally. She is trying and I know this morning that her husband, Jim, talked a good 15 minutes to her about the remodel progress at home and the animals they have … all the while Janet was obviously finding calm in his words. Janet’s friend, Susan, took a Mary Kay Miracle set and nail polish. She and Janet’s nurse have given her a facial and done her nails so Janet will feel like Janet likes to feel.
Late Saturday, David and I returned to Tulsa without a plan. Although we hear her doctors tell us family all needs to be there, her nurses tell us we really need to go and get some rest. We struggle with that. We know we could receive a call at anytime to return for any number of reasons. For now visitors have been limited to family and a very few of Janet’s very close friends. We really hope the time will come soon when we can expand that for her but for now, rest and quiet are very important for her recovery.
I have no doubt that Janet is receiving the very best possible medical care she could have. Her nurses and doctors are amazing people. She has a wonderful network of friends who I know are holding her close in their prayers. David and I are grateful too for the information chain as we know more of Janet’s friends have been updated as we could share with some. We very much appreciate the many prayer chains Janet is on and your individual prayers as well. We are thankful for the phone calls, emails and texts we have been sent to us and for everyone’s patients as we have tried to answer. We appreciate the snack basket from Janet’s co-workers so very much.
During our past 6 days we have known that every factor is an ‘if’. Janet’s doctor’s and her nurse’s have been kind and very frank with us that she is a very sick lady, that they are doing all they can for her, and they really do not know what the outcome will be. Our first hope is that she will wake up and get well enough for her heart to survive until she can have surgery to repair it. We know this is probably going to take a long time and that time will be in the hospital. The right side of her heart is severely damaged; imagine trying to repair a screen with a water hose going through it. The left side has three severe areas of blockage that need addressing as well but the right side must be first. We also know that there is concern over the 30 minutes she experienced in the ER as the team was working to revive her. We know she may wake up and be fine … that is the ‘if’ we pray for the most. But we also know we are not going to know about that for a while, maybe days, and maybe weeks.
I will try to keep you updated as we go and hope you will continue your prayers for Janet. I think we’ve already seen a lot of those prayers answered for her, but I know we genuinely need more.
