Let's Bring Wayne Home!
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My name is Shelly Portee-White and I'm the wife of Wayne White Sr. On December 27, 2015, our lives changed. Wayne complained of feeling dizzy and passed out. He regained consciousness but passed out again. I had to provide stimulation to his chest to help him regain consciousness. He was rushed to the Emergency Room and I was told that he had a severe blood clot called a Saddle Pulmonary Embolism. While attempting to give him a clot bursting drug, Waynes heart stopped. I remember his left arm going limp and hearing the machines beeping. He was in full cardiac arrest for nine minutes and 40 seconds. Three shock treatments and three epi pens later, he was revived. His brain was put on a cooling protocol to preserve his brain cells, but the following day, he went into cardiac arrest again for four minutes.
Wayne was transferred the following day to the University of Maryland Hospital in Baltimore. The blood clot had wrapped itself around his heart and severed his right lung. Immediatly upon his arrival to the new hospital, he was taken into the operating room. He was bleeding but it was unknown where he was bleeding from. After exploratory surgery, the surgeon found that Wayne's liver had a laceration. It's suspected that it was lacerated from the CPR compressions. After surgery, his kidneys completely failed. A few days later, we found out that a piece of the clot broke off and went to his brain, causing him to have a stroke.
Wayne was in a coma and on the "ECMO" machine. The doctors gave him no chance of survival and suggested that I let him "go" peacefully. I refused. I saw things in him that made me believe that he wasn't gone.
Two weeks later. Wayne came out of the coma but he was in a vegetative state. As he began to awaken a little more every day, I noticed that his sight was different. He was totally blind. Probably from the stroke or the annoxic brain injury.
After 10 operations and a two month stay in an ICU unit, Wayne was transferred to an acute rehabilitation hospital. Three weeks into rehab, he was rushed back to the hospital for vomiting. A part of his intestines had died. We're still not sure if it was a clot, but a 10 hour surgery is what repaired it. He spent two more weeks in the hospital and went back to acute rehab. He was then sent to a nursing home for rehab where he remains to date.
We have been in the hospital for 346 days today! I've been there each day watching God's mercy. It's time to bring Wayne home.
I've applied for 23 programs that would help, and we've been denied 22 times. We can't wait any longer. Its very stressful to live in Baltimore, go to work in Washington DC, get off, go to Glen Burnie, Md to see Wayne, then drive home to Baltimore and start over again We need help getting started. Wayne has regained some sight, but he's unable to walk. He needs 24 hour care. I will be paying for home health care out of pocket as well as therapy. We also need a vehicle that will accommodate his transportation needs to and from appointments. I have to lift him and then his 40 pound wheel chair into our car when I transport him.
It's taken a lot of faith and courage to endure this nightmare. It's taken love and support to nurse Wayne to the state of health he's in. Medically, I'm told that he's the best that he'll ever be. Again, I refute that. I believe that removing him from the nursing home and returning him to his family will help him get better.
Wayne was transferred the following day to the University of Maryland Hospital in Baltimore. The blood clot had wrapped itself around his heart and severed his right lung. Immediatly upon his arrival to the new hospital, he was taken into the operating room. He was bleeding but it was unknown where he was bleeding from. After exploratory surgery, the surgeon found that Wayne's liver had a laceration. It's suspected that it was lacerated from the CPR compressions. After surgery, his kidneys completely failed. A few days later, we found out that a piece of the clot broke off and went to his brain, causing him to have a stroke.
Wayne was in a coma and on the "ECMO" machine. The doctors gave him no chance of survival and suggested that I let him "go" peacefully. I refused. I saw things in him that made me believe that he wasn't gone.
Two weeks later. Wayne came out of the coma but he was in a vegetative state. As he began to awaken a little more every day, I noticed that his sight was different. He was totally blind. Probably from the stroke or the annoxic brain injury.
After 10 operations and a two month stay in an ICU unit, Wayne was transferred to an acute rehabilitation hospital. Three weeks into rehab, he was rushed back to the hospital for vomiting. A part of his intestines had died. We're still not sure if it was a clot, but a 10 hour surgery is what repaired it. He spent two more weeks in the hospital and went back to acute rehab. He was then sent to a nursing home for rehab where he remains to date.
We have been in the hospital for 346 days today! I've been there each day watching God's mercy. It's time to bring Wayne home.
I've applied for 23 programs that would help, and we've been denied 22 times. We can't wait any longer. Its very stressful to live in Baltimore, go to work in Washington DC, get off, go to Glen Burnie, Md to see Wayne, then drive home to Baltimore and start over again We need help getting started. Wayne has regained some sight, but he's unable to walk. He needs 24 hour care. I will be paying for home health care out of pocket as well as therapy. We also need a vehicle that will accommodate his transportation needs to and from appointments. I have to lift him and then his 40 pound wheel chair into our car when I transport him.
It's taken a lot of faith and courage to endure this nightmare. It's taken love and support to nurse Wayne to the state of health he's in. Medically, I'm told that he's the best that he'll ever be. Again, I refute that. I believe that removing him from the nursing home and returning him to his family will help him get better.
Organiser
Shelly Portee
Organiser
Baltimore, MD