On December 4, 2017, Christine was on her way to work as the Director of Nursing Education for Winthrop Hospital when suddenly she lost her peripheral vision and had difficulty speaking. She recognized these as potential stroke symptoms and somehow managed to walk herself into Winthrop’s ER where they discovered she had an aneurysm.  She underwent emergency surgery to coil it which saved her life.   Unfortunately, follow-up testing revealed yet another aneurysm, a much more complicated one that required an even more serious operation.

On January 2nd, she underwent her second surgery but suffered an intraoperative bleed on the operating table as her carotid artery disintegrated.  Her surgeon quickly clipped the bleeding area and the aneurysm and again miraculously saved her life.  She was in ICU but alert and responsive. We were thankful she survived and confident that she would recover.  Unfortunately, she suffered another stroke that had slowly evolved after surgery causing her brain to swell.  They performed an emergency craniectomy to relieve the pressure and once again she defied the odds and survived. For those of you who know Christine this would come as no surprise.  She is a fighter and a survivor not to mention one of the kindest, smartest people you will ever meet.  

Christine was intubated and remained so for an agonizing ten days while her family never left her bedside.  This massive stroke caused extensive damage and she was in critical condition for weeks.  She was finally stabilized enough to be sent to Rusk Institute, one of the premier stroke rehabilitative centers, to begin her long and difficult road to recovery.  After a month of intensive inpatient therapy where she worked incredibly hard to relearn everything including how to swallow, the insurance company decided she was no longer entitled to this level of care. She was transferred back to the hospital to have yet another surgery to replace the bone which had been removed to relieve the swelling.   She was then transferred to another facility which would not offer the same level of care she’d had at Rusk but where she would continue to work hard and fight to get back some movement on her paralyzed left side.  After a month, the insurance company decided she wasn’t improving fast enough and stopped paying for her care and sent her home.



As if the fear of losing their mother was not enough, Lauren and Patrick now faced the reality of caring for her at home.  They rose to the challenge brilliantly and have navigated each and every obstacle with love and compassion.  

Christine currently requires 24 hour help with her care and attends outpatient therapy twice a week.  She has made significant milestones and can walk short distances with the use of a quad cane.  Most recently she has seen some small movement in her left arm.  While we are excited by her progress we realize this is not enough.  Her neurosurgeon and stroke recovery team are strongly recommending she have at least 4 days of high level therapy a week and think she is  a good candidate for some of the state of the art treatments available.  Unfortunately insurance is about to run out on her current outpatient visits and all of her other care is being paid out of pocket.  

Those of you that have visited her recently have seen firsthand how she has faced this overwhelming tragedy with such grace.  She is incredibly polite and caring, never a complaint and most amazing to us is how she asks about everyone else and offers encouragement to others.  Nursing was not just Christine’s profession it was her ‘calling’ and even in her dire situation she is still taking care of the rest of us.

  Well Everyone’s Favorite Nurse now needs your help!!  Please consider donating to help us get her the care she needs and deserves.  We cannot let an insurance company dictate the outcome of this beautiful soul.  Together let’s get her through the next phase of her recovery.

As her family we are so very thankful for the love and support that we have received during this difficult time.  There have been so many generous people that have already embraced Christine in many ways.  So much so that we have been reluctant to start this fund but we realize that it truly takes a village...

Thank you for your consideration.