Fundrasier for Sandi Queja
Donation protected
Most people who know our Mom, Sandi Queja, know that she is a fun, loving, and caring woman. As a wife, mother and grandmother (of nine), she always keeps her family laughing. The day after our family’s halloween party, Mom’s health made a turn for the worse resulting in a complicated, intricate, high-risk open brain surgery. Here we will explain the details of her story.
On November 1st, our Mom was brought in to the ER for very high blood pressure, chest pain, high blood sugar and severe pain in her head. After being admitted over night to be monitored, the doctor felt it was okay to send her home and continue to monitor her blood pressure.
November 2nd - Sandi was having a movie night with her two daughters, as the night started to come to an end she presented signs that were alarming; bloody nose, nausea, stiff neck, chest pain, and the pain in her head shifted to behind her eye. We had a gut feeling that something was wrong. Our Dad rushed her back to ER, and several tests were ran. On a CT they found a large aneurysm in her brain and she was admitted to SICU. Within hours, a neurosurgeon met with us to explain what they found and that they were going to run more tests to determine the exact shape, size and placement of her aneurysm.
These tests showed that they could not do a coiling procedure (less invasive), that they would in fact have to do open brain surgery and clamp it. The neurosurgeon explained that a team of specialists would be running simulations to plan out her surgery due to the complexity of it.
November 6th - the Neurosurgeon came to discuss the surgery plan, and help us understand the extremely difficult surgery at hand. He proceeded to say the high risks the surgery would entail. The aneurysm was large in size with an odd shape, located in the mid brain and touching every part of the brain. It was wrapped in blood vessels, attached to the leg of the brain, and had no neck to clamp which presented a huge problem.
November 7th - Mom went into a seven hour surgery. Several complications occurred; part of the catheter that went into her back to create a drain for cerebral fluid broke off below the spine, so there was not as much room for the surgeon to work as he planned. She had two moments that represented seizure activity, and non-stop bleeding. They could only take 75% of the aneurysm, if they took the remaining 25%, she would have had a major stroke that she would have not survived.
Due to severity of complications, she has been on life support since November 7th. They took her off sedation November 9th but she is still not awake. CT’s are ran everyday but no change so far. There is still risk of bleeding out, and strokes until day ten. Mom can’t hold her oxygen levels where they need to be on her own so we can’t get her off life support or run breathing trials.
The longer she is on the life support, she runs the risk of developing pneumonia, it also increases the recovery timeframe and also to see if her brain fully responded to surgery. We don’t know what her deficits will be until she fully wakes. Recovery is determined once she is fully awake and that is when we will see her road to recovery.
All of this said, it is a huge financial burden upon our Dad, Peter Queja, and our Mom during this time. My Mom was apart of their financial income and clearly she can not work at this time nor do we have any idea of when or if she can return. Peter Queja, her husband only receives limited income due to medical disability. They need to be able to keep a roof over their heads, pay the bills, the gas expenses of back & forth to the hospital, food at the hospital is expensive, the medical expenses that can & will come from this is a big concern. We are asking for any financial support that you can give would be greatly appreciated. No donation is too small!! If you cant give, please keep our Mom, and family in prayers.
Thank you greatly for anything you do for our family!
God Bless
On November 1st, our Mom was brought in to the ER for very high blood pressure, chest pain, high blood sugar and severe pain in her head. After being admitted over night to be monitored, the doctor felt it was okay to send her home and continue to monitor her blood pressure.
November 2nd - Sandi was having a movie night with her two daughters, as the night started to come to an end she presented signs that were alarming; bloody nose, nausea, stiff neck, chest pain, and the pain in her head shifted to behind her eye. We had a gut feeling that something was wrong. Our Dad rushed her back to ER, and several tests were ran. On a CT they found a large aneurysm in her brain and she was admitted to SICU. Within hours, a neurosurgeon met with us to explain what they found and that they were going to run more tests to determine the exact shape, size and placement of her aneurysm.
These tests showed that they could not do a coiling procedure (less invasive), that they would in fact have to do open brain surgery and clamp it. The neurosurgeon explained that a team of specialists would be running simulations to plan out her surgery due to the complexity of it.
November 6th - the Neurosurgeon came to discuss the surgery plan, and help us understand the extremely difficult surgery at hand. He proceeded to say the high risks the surgery would entail. The aneurysm was large in size with an odd shape, located in the mid brain and touching every part of the brain. It was wrapped in blood vessels, attached to the leg of the brain, and had no neck to clamp which presented a huge problem.
November 7th - Mom went into a seven hour surgery. Several complications occurred; part of the catheter that went into her back to create a drain for cerebral fluid broke off below the spine, so there was not as much room for the surgeon to work as he planned. She had two moments that represented seizure activity, and non-stop bleeding. They could only take 75% of the aneurysm, if they took the remaining 25%, she would have had a major stroke that she would have not survived.
Due to severity of complications, she has been on life support since November 7th. They took her off sedation November 9th but she is still not awake. CT’s are ran everyday but no change so far. There is still risk of bleeding out, and strokes until day ten. Mom can’t hold her oxygen levels where they need to be on her own so we can’t get her off life support or run breathing trials.
The longer she is on the life support, she runs the risk of developing pneumonia, it also increases the recovery timeframe and also to see if her brain fully responded to surgery. We don’t know what her deficits will be until she fully wakes. Recovery is determined once she is fully awake and that is when we will see her road to recovery.
All of this said, it is a huge financial burden upon our Dad, Peter Queja, and our Mom during this time. My Mom was apart of their financial income and clearly she can not work at this time nor do we have any idea of when or if she can return. Peter Queja, her husband only receives limited income due to medical disability. They need to be able to keep a roof over their heads, pay the bills, the gas expenses of back & forth to the hospital, food at the hospital is expensive, the medical expenses that can & will come from this is a big concern. We are asking for any financial support that you can give would be greatly appreciated. No donation is too small!! If you cant give, please keep our Mom, and family in prayers.
Thank you greatly for anything you do for our family!
God Bless
Organizer and beneficiary
Jaclyn DelCorte
Organizer
La Mesa, CA
Heather Queja
Beneficiary
