Support Debbie Wilson (Taylor) - Critical Care Journey

My name is Katie Taylor and I am the oldest daughter of Debbie Wilson (Taylor) and Bill Wilson. Late into the night on Saturday October 5th while on vacation in Bloomington, Illinois visiting family my mom sustained a severe injury to her C1, C2 vertebrae and her spinal cord from a fall that we still can not determine the cause of, and honestly might not ever be able to know what happened.

She has a broken neck and needs to go in for a very delicate and invasive surgery to hopefully stabilize the fractured vertebrae. When she was found immediately after her fall her heart stopped and she wasn't breathing and my family had to perform the necessary rescue measures to save her life. The paramedics also had to intubate her in the field as well as work to get her heart started again. This caused her to have bilateral breaks of ribs 2-7. Just in case you aren't aware it is important to note that when doing chest compressions correctly the patient will sustain fractures to the rib. This is completely normal but does add a level of difficulty in her surgical and healing processes.

At this time she does have her cognitive functions and is aware of who she is, where she is, and what her injuries are which is a VERY good sign! She is still intubated and on a vent but the spontaneous breathing trials have been going very well and we have hope there. There is an injury to the spinal cord and her heart is showing weakening in one of the chambers as well as a leaky valve but they can't work on the heart until we stabilize her neck. She has very very limited movement of her left side (can lightly wiggle a toe or a finger) and while they have ruled out a stroke we are still waiting to see if we can find the source of that issue or if we know if and how long term of a problem it will be.

The hospital in Illinois attempted surgery but after they flipped her over for it her heart stopped and they had to perform more rescue measures to bring her back. She did return quickly and thankfully it only took us back to square one and not ten steps backwards. After this it was decided she needed to be moved to a trauma 1 hospital and we had her life flighted back to St. Louis.

Her team here is now planning to attempt surgery again. We do feel more confident with her progress since arriving and the abilities and resources they have. Depending on how they can stabilize the broken vertebrae she might permanently lose her ability to have any rotation in her head/neck but it just depends on what they can do surgically to give it the best chance for stabilization, there's hope they will go down her spine and utilize the lower vertebrae for support vs the lower portion of her skull.

It's difficult because we do not know what happened, it is a lot of chicken and egg scenarios of not knowing which came first or what caused what. What we do know is it is a very delicate and we just have to take it one step at a time.

Due to all of this my dad hasn't left her side and between the medical expenses accruing and him being out of a work for an undetermined amount of time I have decided to create this GFM. A lot of people have reached out asking to help and taking this financial burden of my parents while my dad stays by my moms side helps the most. We don't expect anyone to do anything. If you are unable to donate no worries I just ask that you please share the link so we can try to get this taken care of for them.

We appreciate all of the well wishes, prayers, and love for Debbie Wilson. We are very thankful she has so many people in her corner fighting for her recovery! Please spread this fundraiser and keep thinking positive thoughts!