Stacey

On Friday April 26th this beautiful and amazing woman, mother and wife was leaving work to go pick up her son when all of a sudden her world as she knew was taken out from under her feet.  Stacey suffered a large left sided stroke leaving her speechless and unable to move her right side of her body.  Luckily someone witnessed to event and called 911.  Upon arrival to the hospital she received a CT scan as well as a CTA scan of her head.  The scans displayed a blood clot in the left side of her brain.  After that she was taken to Interventional Radiology where the doctors tried several times to remove the clot in her head.  After each pass with a suction catheter the clot that was removed kept reforming.  This process went on for two hours with no success in completely removing the clot. Stacey was then admitted to the Neuro Critical Care Unit at Swedish Medical in Englewood Colorado.  The following morning a follow up CT scan was performed that displayed that there was large portion of the left side of her brain that was damaged and was beginning to swell and compress the right side of her brain due the dead brain tissue.  The neurosurgery team at Swedish was consulted and after their review of the CT scan, the only course of saving Stacey’s life was to perform a decompressive hemi-crani, which meant removing a large section of the left side of Stacey’s skull.  Stacey was taken to operating room early that afternoon and her surgery was completed without incident.  Stacey was then brought back to Neuro Critical Care Unit on a breathing machine and highly sedated to allow her brain to rest and adjust to the skull for the course of the night.  Early the following morning another CT scan was performed and although she was without left side of her skull, her brain still swelled outward and inward resulting in pushing into the right side of her brain by 1cm.  Although there was a significant amount of left to right swelling, her drive to breath on her own was not compromised and it was deemed safe to stop the sedation and remove the breathing tube.  Neurologically, nothing had improved or worsened.  As of the time of this posting, Stacey’s brain still remains swollen, she is still non verbal, she has progressed to minimal movements of her right upper arm and withdrawal to pain on right leg.  She has been worked with physical and occupational therapies, and a request has been submitted to get her admitted to Craig hospital for rehabilitation as soon as she is medically stable.  She will be without left side of her skull for approximately six to eight weeks requiring her to be fitted for a special helmet to protect her brain while she is in rehab.  She may be in rehabilitation for up to one year and possibly requiring outpatient services as well.  As a result of all this, Stacey will most likely not be able to work for quite some time and will need home health care once she is able to come home.  Her husband will continue to work as he is able to and will also be the care provider for Stacey and their son.  All funds donated will be used to help pay for in hospital medical bills, rehabilitation expenses, child care expenses and possibly round the clock nanny care to allow her husband to continue in his current position as a Neuro Critical Care RN.  Funds will also be used to make in home modifications for Stacey so that she may be able to move about more easily and restroom modifications as well.