Patricia Rush: Help Us Honor Her Memory

On January 31st, 2025, my mother, Patricia Rush, was in Seacrest Rehabilitation Center. This was following an emergency gallbladder surgery (despite no warning signs; she didn’t complain about pain until the day that I got her to the hospital) that was at the point of gangrene. She had the surgery with minimal complications. Over the past year, she suffered major cognitive problems. She would know what year it was and could draw a clock, but could not remember anything that happened currently. The hospital released her 3 days past the surgery while she was still on a drip for her blood pressure. We insisted that she go to a rehabilitation center instead of home because we didn’t think she should have been released. At the center, they didn’t take into account that she was a fall risk and didn’t even give her a walker. On the morning of her death, she was in the bathroom and then got up (unassisted and without any medical person in the room). Before she could make it to her bed, she apparently collapsed, dying shortly afterwards.

This tragedy has hit both Pat and me extremely hard. As she was the one that controlled the finances in the house (although Pat had been stepping in this last year as her dementia progressed), our money situation is a mess right now. We are trying to get the money together that would allow us to give her a proper send-off. Anyone who knew her knows she was probably one of the most giving people throughout her life and hated asking anyone for assistance. But unfortunately, we are crunching the numbers and we might be able to pull it off, but leave ourselves with some unpaid bills. We would be very grateful to anyone that could donate. No matter how small or big, it will help. Thank you in advance. And if you too don’t have the money, I am not trying to make anyone feel obligated.