Hi Everyone

As some of you may be aware, my 52-year-old sister-in-law, Debra Topping, suffered an aneurysm and stroke on Sunday, April 14th. When she arrived at the hospital, she was rated a 3 on the Glasgow Coma Scale (which I now know is the lowest you can go). She was intubated and on life support. She miraculously improved to an 8 by the morning so they decided to go in and put coils in the aneurysm to stop any further bleeding.

A typical aneurysm is 4mm but hers was 1.5 inches long. Normally they place 1-2 coils in the aneurysm but she got 24 coils. The same day she had the brain surgery she was able to recognize people and talk. She also pulled almost all the tubes and monitoring devices off and tried getting up out of the bed to go to the bathroom. The nurse told me “she is not to be trusted.”

She is such a fighter but has a long road ahead. Her short-term memory is a little like “groundhogs’ day.” Her brain will still be absorbing the excess blood over the next 30 days. She was in the ICU for 14 days and now is in a regular room at the hospital. We think the next step is rehab and we are not sure what comes after that.

Deb is a self-employed hairdresser and we are being told recovery time is at least 1 year. At that time, we will know if she will be able to go back work or if she will be on disability permanently.

Debbie is a fun-loving, impulsive, happy-go-lucky animal lover who would do anything and everything to help those she loves. She even donated one of her kidneys to a client of hers that did not have a match within her family. We are just trying to raise money to help her with her medical expenses and living expenses while she recovers.

Of course there is no pressure to send money. She would appreciate everyone’s thoughts and kind words. She does NOT currently have her phone at this time. See the nurses quote above. Any kind of support is appreciated.