Garrett's Anoxic Brain Injury & Continued Recovery

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• published: 20 Jul 2015
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This video is about Garrett's Anoxic Brain Injury due to lack of oxygen to the brain. Garrett was in a drug treatment program when he went to sleep feeling nauseated after taking Suboxen. His roommate found him unresponsive at 5am on March 5, 2015, when it was time for lab. Garrett had vomited in his sleep and breathed it into his lungs. We don't know how long Garrett was not getting oxygen, we do know any longer would have caused either permanent disability or death - Part 1- March 5, 2015 1. Anoxic Brain Injury 2. Acute Rhadomyolysis - breakdown of muscle tissue that leads to the release of muscle fiber contents into the blood. These substances are harmful to the kidney and often cause kidney damage. 3. Acute Kidney Injury - Renal Failure 4. Hypoxia - insufficient oxygen reaching the blood. 5. Coma 6. Hyperkalemia 7. Multiple Brain Strokes 8. Pneumonia Our Story: On March 5th, 2015 at 5:35am, I received "that" phone call. The phone call I had been dreading for the past 3 years. I would get calls 3-4 times a week in the middle of the night regularly..with the panic of not knowing what the phone call was for..expecting the worst..sometimes it was a bad..so much drugs, alcohol, violence, and lies. I never new what to expect. This call..I was 6 hours away from my son, who was back in inpatient care after just getting our a few weeks prior. He relapsed. We moved him away from his home town to help keep him focus on his recovery and not see or be around so many familiar things that would trigger his drug use. I spent the next 6 hours sitting in the back seat of our car, my husband driving as fast as he could, and my 9 year old daughter in the front seat. We were told Garrett would not survive, and that he would probably be deceased before we arrived. I spent that time in a world of dark blank silence..wondering what type of funeral to have..or should Garrett be cremated..and what type of Urn and color. I was looking at my daughter, all she has had to witness and endure from the beginning to now with her brother's disease, and her mom always running to his aid. We arrived at Chandler Hospital, walked down the hallway, the 2nd to the last room on the right..I didn't know what to expect..if he was still alive. My mom was there, she had moved with Garrett to AZ to assist with his out patient treatment program that he had just started. She was worn out, and in shock. Michael, Garrett's friend that also went to help with Garrett, like a brother to Garrett was already there as well. Garrett was pale as a ghost, on a breathing machine...I've seen that look before with my father..that look of death. My dad was an alcoholic. That look of no life, no pores open .. your face looks so pale and smooth..cold. There was so much confusion..I didn't know what doctors where for what issue..they kept coming and going with the look of disappointment on their faces. We were told all we could do was wait, but the outcome did not look good. He had multiple strokes in his brain, heart damage, and he was building up pneumonia at the same time watching his kidneys and liver for issues. Days turned into nights, I sat at his bedside..24/7..dozing off sitting up, holding his hand..for days..praying. he could still die, and if he wakes, they wont know the extent of the damage to his brain and days after that...test after test...we were told both sides of his brain went without oxygen..the MRI and EEG all show a waterfall stroke and more often then not, if injured patients as such wake, they are bed ridden, or have multiple physical challenges. Garrett had no eye movement, no dilation, no blink to the touch of his eyes..no response to the probing and poking on his hands and feet...day after day. Slowly the doctors began taking him off oxygen to see if he could breath on his own...a few seconds, then minutes...and longer each day.. My son's eyes were finally opened, we didn't know if he could see, think, or move. His left arm and leg would move uncontrollably, we had to pad the left side of his bed so he would not bruise or injury himself, it got so bad the nurses had to put restraints on his wrists to keep his arms from hurting him, or pulling out any tubes. During our time in ICU we would witness Code Blue alerts, see or hear people dying in the rooms close to ours..it was so heartbreaking. I remember those intercom calls "code blue, room Cxxx, Code Blue room Cxxx", it would make me sick to my stomach even when I was sitting next to Garrett's bed and it was not for him. Garrett did Code Blue 3 times...One time I was down the hallway while my Brother was sitting with Garrett. I heard the intercom come on..Code Blue..room C313...I was not prepared ..as that was my son's room...