Aid for Sherlinda’s children while she fights for life!

My name is Darsandra Shields

I am writing this message to request financial support for Sherlinda McBride my 42 year old daughter, single mom of five children, while she fights for her life in ICU. On Wednesday August 7, she went to the ER because she was having shortness of breath and chest pains. It was determined that she had had a heart attack and required stents in 2 arteries. Several hours later, she was fine and resting, telling us that the stent surgery was successful and she felt good and would be home in 2 days. After receiving blood thinners, she became violently ill, and passed out.

Several hours after my conversation with her, her children called and said she was unresponsive, intubated and being rushed to ICU. I live half way across the country from her and immediately found a ticket to rush to her side the next morning. I talked to her Drs and told them I would be there in the morning. However, I received another urgent call from the hospital an hour or so later saying that they had to operate on her immediately, and they could not wait for me to arrive. She had suffered a stroke, aneurysm and she had a blood clot in her brain that was risky to operate on, but if they didn’t operate on it and stop the bleeding in her brain, she would not survive the night. They performed the surgery, got the blood clot out, and stopped the brain bleed. I arrived the next afternoon to see her completely sedated and attached to too many machines to count. The Drs said she needed to rest, however, she still was at risk of blood clots because they could not give her blood thinners. The next day and another CT scan, the Drs said that she has another blood clot in her major artery that goes between her heart and brain and also her brain had begun to bleed again. They needed to rush her back to surgery again!! We said ok, and again the Drs said they got the blood clot out and put drains in her head to measure pressure in the brain and drain any blood that was still leaking. We met with her medical team 2 days later and the prognosis was bleak, but we kept praying hoping God would save her. On the 3rd day, we got more devastating news, her brain was swelling and they needed to operate on her again to cut out a large portion of her skull to allow her brain room to swell and for the pressure to go down. They told us to call the family to come to spend as much time with her as possible because it wasn’t looking good. The family came from near and far, but too late to see her on Sunday. We gathered close to the hospital, and we again, got yet another call early Monday morning saying she had suffered another heart attack and to come now to the hospital. We gathered around her early Monday morning until 5am praying, comforting and loving on her. She is still holding on after 2 weeks “Praise God”.

She is making “baby steps” towards recovery, but she has a long, long way to go, including being discharged to a rehab facility which cares for tracheotomy patients, another surgery she had to get when they took her off of the ventilator. She is currently breathing on her own through a trachea and will be transferred to another city, 2 1/2 hours away from her home and children when she is stable. They will need funds to travel back and forth to visit her at the rehab.

Now reality has set in as her household and children are still in need funds to pay their rent, bills, utilities, food, school clothes and supplies to be paid while trying keep their lives intact (school, youth jobs) that must go on while she is fighting for her life. We are asking for any amount you can give to help my daughter’s family stay together in their home while their mother and grandmother prayerfully fully recovers.