Help Us Keep Helping Delia!

Delia’s Story:

Before tragedy struck, Delia was living and loving life. She had just graduated from the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth with a bachelor's degree in Nursing. Delia had a strong desire to make a difference in people’s lives. She is incredibly smart, but more importantly, she is genuinely compassionate and empathetic in every aspect of her life. At the time of her catastrophic injury, Delia was a CNA at St. Anne’s Hospital on the Geriatric Psych Ward. Her sense of humor, combined with her unwavering compassion made her a perfect fit for this position.

Delia’s amazing energy and positive outlook on life always brought happiness to everyone around her. She is the product of a very close knit, loving and supportive family. Regardless of how difficult it has been to watch her family go through this extremely horrific time, It has also been life changing to witness their strong faith, their abundant love for each other and their strength.

Our hope in creating this GoFundMe is to help them help Delia continue her brave journey, and maybe open the doors to another miracle or two

Delia was only 22 years old when an unthinkable tragedy struck, and consequently changed the lives of her entire family in an instant. Delia suffered a major brain injury, due to an AVM rupture. AVM stands for Arteriovenous Malformation, and doctors have confirmed that this was something present since birth. Due to Delia living a very high quality/symptom-free life for 22 years, everyone was unaware of her condition. That is, until this horrific night. On the evening of June 9, 2022, after a very sudden onset of symptoms, Delia was rushed to St Annes Hospital. Very shortly after her arrival, she was intubated and transported to Rhode Island Hospital, where she was immediately placed in the Neuro ICU. Her prognosis was not good. Delia was fighting for her life and her family was fighting alongside her. While at Rhode Island hospital, Delia was receiving the absolute best care that they could possibly provide for her. She underwent two major procedures to stop the bleeding in her brain within the first 24 hours. Her body was under an extreme amount of stress, causing major problems with her heart and regulatory system. Delia suffered two strokes as a result of the trauma. Throughout all of this, Delia continued to beat the odds and she fought to stay alive. During this whirlwind of a time, Delia’s family began to research her specific diagnosis, and searching to find the best hospitals, equipped with the best doctors, neurosurgeons, and technology to give Delia the best chance at recovery. Luckily, the best of the best were right here in Boston, Massachusetts. They met with teams from Boston Children’s Hospital, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and Mass General Hospital. They decided that her best chance would be at Brigham and Women’s hospital under the care of a world-renowned neurosurgeon specializing in AVM’s. Now it was a waiting game for Delia to be stable enough to transport. Another miracle. Within 24 hours of making the decision, they deemed Delia stable enough to be transported. Delia would go on to spend 101 days in the hospital, 91 of them in the Neuro ICU. Delia is a fighter, and all of the challenges and setbacks that she overcame while at Brigham is too long to list. In September 2022, Delia was transported to Spaulding Rehabilitation in Cambridge to enter the next phase of her fight. During Delia’s stay at Spaulding, she was again met with the most amazing doctors, therapists, and researchers. The facility, as amazing as it was, is not for long term care. The family was given the option to either take her home or to send her to a Skilled Nursing Facility. Her family chose to bring her home and give her the best chance of recovery with their love, determination, and faith. They spent overnights at Spaulding, learning how to care for Delia, medically and functionally. For 8 months, her family had traveled to and from Boston, never missing a day. But on January 24, 2023, Delia was discharged from Spaulding and headed home! Her road to recovery was really just beginning. The family is still so grateful to have her home with them and they continue to work diligently to obtain all of the services available for her. While Delia has made tremendous progress physically, neurologically, she has so far remained in a vegetative/minimally conscious state. Delia is in need of 24hr care. Her mom, dad, and brother are her primary caregivers, however she does have a wonderful nurse that is with her during the week, along with her amazing PCA.

Here’s why we need your help now:

Delia would benefit from a handicap van for a variety of reasons. Most importantly - medical appointments that cannot wait 48 hours for public transit scheduling. Also, this would improve Delia’s quality of life by allowing her family to take her out into the community and visit family and friends as well as some of her favorite places such as colt state park which she loves, and for a couple of years now has not been able to visit.