Help Us Honor Margarets Memory

Our mother/grandmother, Margaret Murphy, Dean, Black, passed away today at Ruby Memorial Hospital at 10:43 AM.

On January 30th, she started having pain, redness, and swelling in her left leg. She had an appointment with her PCP, who advised her to go to Highlands Hospital. Upon arrival at Highlands Hospital, it was extremely busy, so it was best to take her to Frick Hospital. Upon arrival at Frick Hospital, she was taken back and was told she had a DVT (deep vein thrombosis). They did not do any blood work or imaging other than a bedside Doppler confirming the DVT. They discharged her with Eliquis and told her to follow up with her PCP.

On January 31st, one of her daughters and granddaughter went down to check on her. She was having difficulty breathing, was pale, and shaking. At that time, the best option was to get her to the car to go to Presby. Unfortunately, she collapsed quite a few times, and 911 had to be called. When paramedics arrived on the scene, her O2 levels were very low. She was sent to Highlands Hospital. They had a hard time getting her stabilized. She required a BIPAP. Their main goal was to get her stable and send her to Uniontown Hospital. She was sent via ambulance to Uniontown Hospital later that night. After a CT scan of her lungs, it showed that she had a saddle embolism (very rare and life-threatening), multiple PEs (pulmonary embolisms), and a GI bleed. It was urgent that she was transferred to Ruby Memorial Hospital in Morgantown, West Virginia.

On February 1st, she arrived at Ruby Memorial Hospital around 9 AM. She was alert and talking. She was taken to the bathroom and settled into bed. She was to go in for an emergency thrombectomy to try and remove the embolisms. Unfortunately, she started to decline. Our only option was TPA, which is a medication used to help dissolve/break up the embolisms. At 10:06 AM, she went into cardiac arrest for the first time. She was intubated, and CPR was initiated. They got her pulse back, but she coded again. She got two doses of TPA. They did CPR for 46 minutes. Time of death was called at 10:43 AM.

Unfortunately, her life insurance wasn’t paid into long enough to cover the costs of the funeral and cremation. They are only giving back a portion of what was paid into it, and it was bare to nothing. So, we are raising money to have a proper service so family and friends can say their final goodbyes.