In Loving Memory of Patricia Ann Perez
Donation protected
The heart and soul of our family and our dearly loved and respected mother, Patricia Ann Perez, passed away on the morning of September 28, 2020 at the age of 62. She was a truly loving mother and fiercely passionate associate at Home Depot NE Bakersfield #1060 where she was the last remaining associate who opened the store in 2002. She was diagnosed with kidney failure four-years prior to her death but that did not ultimately end her life. She died from a blood infection, sepsis, induced by a nurse’s mismanagement of morphine in the hospital which caused here bodily functions to fail. An allergic reaction to Equate Cool & Heat pain relieving cream on her hand accidently got into her mouth and caused her tongue to swell which sent her to the hospital on the night of September 20, 2020. While at the hospital some medication given to her made the swelling worsen, causing her to be placed on a ventilator for five-days until the swelling went down. It went down and she was taken off the ventilator, but combined with the nurse’s mismanagement of a morphine dosage given to her for pain in her chest from being on a ventilator for a long period of time put her in a sleeping state, just a day before she would’ve been discharged, where she had to be placed back on a ventilator in order to breathe until the morphine wore off. During this second time on a ventilator it was found that she had a blood infection, that she didn’t have the day before, which lead to her untimely death.
On June 10, 2016 Patricia Perez a proud mother of two, Eben and Bianca Borrero, in pain and having low energy due to a lingering illness that her physicians at the time couldn’t diagnose watched as her first born and only son graduated Summa Cum Laude with a degree in electrical engineering. Exactly one week later she was on her way to the hospital, diagnosed with kidney failure. This diagnoses landed her in a month long fight in the hospital trying to bring her kidney function back which unfortunately failed. The time at the hospital left her weak, bedridden, unable to walk, and 40 lbs. lighter, leading to her son deciding to postpone his future career in engineering to become her full-time caretaker where he remained to this day.
From that moment on she became a dialysis patient at DaVita, receiving three treatments a week for three hours each session. Being on dialysis come with its ups and downs and she faced each challenge head-on. She had her good days where she was able to move freely and never getting tired, going shopping and buying whatever she wanted at the time on a whim much to her son’s annoyance. She also had her times of pain from being on the machine: retaining too much fluid which made it difficult to breathe and caused low energy and her heart problems that came from the stress on the dialysis machine on her body. This lead to two strokes which kept here in the hospital again for long periods of time, two-weeks and three-weeks respectively, leading to her having a pacemaker implanted in her shoulder under her skin. Of course we can’t forget about the high blood pressure, which she never had prior to kidney failure, that came with the territory and managing it became a daily necessity. These times in the hospital didn’t come without their own complications such as when the nursing staff gave her too much blood thinners that caused a hole in her stomach to open up and she started to bleed out. This led to her having an immediate emergency surgery, placing a permanent metal coil in her stomach. I can't forget to mention all the times she needed an IV, it would be an agonizing task for her as her veins were naturally tiny and rolled. The nurse or phlebotomist showed no mercy to her as it was common to need at least two attempts, sometimes even six, to get a "good one." All I could do was watch as she cried and squirmed in pain and the scar tissue left her right arm bruised and discolored, her left arm was for dialysis. Oh yes I was there almost every time for almost every needle prick, not this final time as the hospital policy for visitors changed this year.
The worst of her pains from dialysis were her severe leg cramps, on and off the machine, sometimes lasting for over an hour and even creeping from one leg to the other. The cramp pain would start in her calf or her ankle, or her toes in one leg and work its way up or down her leg and even jumping to the other leg just as we, her and her son, just fought off the pain in the first leg. Often she would ask the lord for help as no amount of her son’s rubbing could calm her pain. The only thing she counted on was Icy Hot and Equate Cool & Heat to tame the cramps which thankfully worked. Her skin color changed around her left arm where the dialysis fistula was placed, it always made her self-conscious and she would often wear a shirt long enough to cover the area or she would wear a sweater even in the summer to cover it. All of this to be sure she wouldn’t get concerned stares or frightened others who believed she was in great pain or ill. She would promptly answer any question, assuring the concerned person that she is “fine” and “I’m okay, it doesn’t hurt. It’s just for my dialysis treatment.”
She was always very brave and didn’t wish for people to be concerned about her condition. She decided to go back to work in January 2017, a mere six-months after her initial diagnosis. It was something of an impressive feat regarded by the DaVita staff as well as other dialysis patients that wish they had the energy to do the same. It kept her mind off her situation and she always thrived at work, an 18-year veteran at Home Depot and the last remaining associate that opened that particular store back in 2002. She followed her father’s footsteps in home improvement as he sold lumber at Sandstone before its closure. She often told me how she would tease him in his sleep trying to buy wood from him, he would answer back but eventually her mother would catch her and tell her to leave him alone. She never imagined she would work in a similar company and she too would work in her dreams. Although, I wouldn’t tease her when she was sleeping and she wouldn’t believe me when I told her what she did. She loved her job either way, even though she could’ve done something else with her master’s degree in sociology, she had a deep passion for her work. Of course she knew the store like the back of her hand; her main focus was specialties and being the customer order specialist (COS). The person you talk to when something went wrong with your order. You know the person you yelled at or cussed out because your install is taking too long, or it’s wrong, or there is a delay and you’re not happy because you need it installed that weekend, or when an associate messes up. Nothing stopped her from battling for the order: fighting installers, distributors and sometimes even her fellow associates for their level of care or to follow protocol which she expected from them. She was known as “The Boss,” “The Queen” even though she never took a management position. Nope, she just enjoyed being a regular associate even though no one thought of her that way in a very long time.
In her words going back to work was good for her, it kept her mind busy and not feeling sorry for herself. It didn’t come without its own complications while on dialysis: fatigue, unexpected nausea, vomiting, dizziness, hot flashes, and loss of appetite where some of the things that she experienced working. This further complicated her goal to gain weight to be eligible for a kidney transplant. The 25-lbs she needed to add to be eligible for UCLA’s transplant program seemed like an insurmountable task for her current 97-lbs frame which only stressed her son out even more. She kept many of these problems to herself, only telling her caregiver son what happened to her at work or why she left early and called him to pick her up.
It is very likely that only a few of her co-workers knew of her struggle as she generally kept her problems to herself. In fact, her follow associates reading this more than likely had no idea just how sick she was at work when they noticed her looking tired, sluggish, or hunched over. Even during her time in the hospital such as for her two strokes, or for severe fluid in her lungs, and for being unable to breathe, her co-workers would visit her. Every one of them would have a smile on their face when they see her because she's their treasured friend and many of them didn’t realize just how much she went through until they found out she was in the hospital during those times. During their visits, she would often talk about their problems at work. Always wanting to help others, well it helped that she knew Home Depot’s regulations front and back and she wasn’t afraid to “tell it like it is” which they deeply respected her for being so upfront and never talking behind your back. Although she would never solve their problems for them, she would only advise them on what to say and how to say it. It was her way of doing things. She would often tell me about the stories of her co-workers problems she had to fix, giving them a piece of her mind about it. Her dealing with assistant store managers without fear, something regular associates would hesitate to do without a push of encouragement from her. She would tell me all about her day fixing order problems all with a know-it-all smile on her face.
I often would be amazed at how much joy and passion she would have from solving problems. That didn’t just stop at just her work and co-workers but her own family. She took care of her elderly parents until their passing as well as fought for the best level of education for her deaf daughter, even going as far as commuting every weekend from Bakersfield, CA to Riverside, CA for nearly four years so Bianca would have the best high school education for deaf students which help her get into Gallaudet university. She helped her Puerto Rican mother-in-law to pass the certification to become an ESL teacher. As the PTA president for her son’s elementary school, she refused to sign an approval to allow only the sixth grade class to go to summer camp while the whole school participated in the fundraiser. She said if they want to go to camp they should raise their own money and the other classes should get some compensation for their efforts. It made the news and the school board had an emergency meeting which changed the system forever, incidentally she was promptly asked to resign her position after the incident. She even went as far as pushing her son to finish his degree and helping him realize his potential that he didn’t know he had when he graduated at the top of his class. This love and passion will never be forgotten as she raised two college graduates and having a village-size level of loving support and respect from her immediate and extended family and her co-workers. Patricia Perez, Patty, will be deeply missed and her passing will leave a void in her family that will never be filled again.
Thank you for reading this story of my mother’s life spanning the last 20-years. I dedicated my life and time to her well-being and loved every second of it, her ups and downs were mine to share. I am proud to be her son. She was my heart and soul, my love, my joy, she was everything for me: a mother, a best friend, an ear to listen to my troubles, a shoulder to cry on, and my unending wealth of knowledge and she was taken from us. She did so much for others in her life from the beginning that it would take a novel length book to explain all of them. She loved helping others but she can no longer do what she loves. We hope to help take some of the burden off her surviving loved ones that are making arrangements for her passing. The very same loved ones that would gladly trade anything to see her smile, hear her laughing, hear her yelling out answers to her favorite show Family Feud or just listen to her voice as she happily talks about her day over anything else again. I don’t really have an outlet to express my pain, so writing this piece was a very good experience for me in my path to accepting her loss. Thank you for any support given to our cause, it is greatly appreciated.
On June 10, 2016 Patricia Perez a proud mother of two, Eben and Bianca Borrero, in pain and having low energy due to a lingering illness that her physicians at the time couldn’t diagnose watched as her first born and only son graduated Summa Cum Laude with a degree in electrical engineering. Exactly one week later she was on her way to the hospital, diagnosed with kidney failure. This diagnoses landed her in a month long fight in the hospital trying to bring her kidney function back which unfortunately failed. The time at the hospital left her weak, bedridden, unable to walk, and 40 lbs. lighter, leading to her son deciding to postpone his future career in engineering to become her full-time caretaker where he remained to this day.
From that moment on she became a dialysis patient at DaVita, receiving three treatments a week for three hours each session. Being on dialysis come with its ups and downs and she faced each challenge head-on. She had her good days where she was able to move freely and never getting tired, going shopping and buying whatever she wanted at the time on a whim much to her son’s annoyance. She also had her times of pain from being on the machine: retaining too much fluid which made it difficult to breathe and caused low energy and her heart problems that came from the stress on the dialysis machine on her body. This lead to two strokes which kept here in the hospital again for long periods of time, two-weeks and three-weeks respectively, leading to her having a pacemaker implanted in her shoulder under her skin. Of course we can’t forget about the high blood pressure, which she never had prior to kidney failure, that came with the territory and managing it became a daily necessity. These times in the hospital didn’t come without their own complications such as when the nursing staff gave her too much blood thinners that caused a hole in her stomach to open up and she started to bleed out. This led to her having an immediate emergency surgery, placing a permanent metal coil in her stomach. I can't forget to mention all the times she needed an IV, it would be an agonizing task for her as her veins were naturally tiny and rolled. The nurse or phlebotomist showed no mercy to her as it was common to need at least two attempts, sometimes even six, to get a "good one." All I could do was watch as she cried and squirmed in pain and the scar tissue left her right arm bruised and discolored, her left arm was for dialysis. Oh yes I was there almost every time for almost every needle prick, not this final time as the hospital policy for visitors changed this year.
The worst of her pains from dialysis were her severe leg cramps, on and off the machine, sometimes lasting for over an hour and even creeping from one leg to the other. The cramp pain would start in her calf or her ankle, or her toes in one leg and work its way up or down her leg and even jumping to the other leg just as we, her and her son, just fought off the pain in the first leg. Often she would ask the lord for help as no amount of her son’s rubbing could calm her pain. The only thing she counted on was Icy Hot and Equate Cool & Heat to tame the cramps which thankfully worked. Her skin color changed around her left arm where the dialysis fistula was placed, it always made her self-conscious and she would often wear a shirt long enough to cover the area or she would wear a sweater even in the summer to cover it. All of this to be sure she wouldn’t get concerned stares or frightened others who believed she was in great pain or ill. She would promptly answer any question, assuring the concerned person that she is “fine” and “I’m okay, it doesn’t hurt. It’s just for my dialysis treatment.”
She was always very brave and didn’t wish for people to be concerned about her condition. She decided to go back to work in January 2017, a mere six-months after her initial diagnosis. It was something of an impressive feat regarded by the DaVita staff as well as other dialysis patients that wish they had the energy to do the same. It kept her mind off her situation and she always thrived at work, an 18-year veteran at Home Depot and the last remaining associate that opened that particular store back in 2002. She followed her father’s footsteps in home improvement as he sold lumber at Sandstone before its closure. She often told me how she would tease him in his sleep trying to buy wood from him, he would answer back but eventually her mother would catch her and tell her to leave him alone. She never imagined she would work in a similar company and she too would work in her dreams. Although, I wouldn’t tease her when she was sleeping and she wouldn’t believe me when I told her what she did. She loved her job either way, even though she could’ve done something else with her master’s degree in sociology, she had a deep passion for her work. Of course she knew the store like the back of her hand; her main focus was specialties and being the customer order specialist (COS). The person you talk to when something went wrong with your order. You know the person you yelled at or cussed out because your install is taking too long, or it’s wrong, or there is a delay and you’re not happy because you need it installed that weekend, or when an associate messes up. Nothing stopped her from battling for the order: fighting installers, distributors and sometimes even her fellow associates for their level of care or to follow protocol which she expected from them. She was known as “The Boss,” “The Queen” even though she never took a management position. Nope, she just enjoyed being a regular associate even though no one thought of her that way in a very long time.
In her words going back to work was good for her, it kept her mind busy and not feeling sorry for herself. It didn’t come without its own complications while on dialysis: fatigue, unexpected nausea, vomiting, dizziness, hot flashes, and loss of appetite where some of the things that she experienced working. This further complicated her goal to gain weight to be eligible for a kidney transplant. The 25-lbs she needed to add to be eligible for UCLA’s transplant program seemed like an insurmountable task for her current 97-lbs frame which only stressed her son out even more. She kept many of these problems to herself, only telling her caregiver son what happened to her at work or why she left early and called him to pick her up.
It is very likely that only a few of her co-workers knew of her struggle as she generally kept her problems to herself. In fact, her follow associates reading this more than likely had no idea just how sick she was at work when they noticed her looking tired, sluggish, or hunched over. Even during her time in the hospital such as for her two strokes, or for severe fluid in her lungs, and for being unable to breathe, her co-workers would visit her. Every one of them would have a smile on their face when they see her because she's their treasured friend and many of them didn’t realize just how much she went through until they found out she was in the hospital during those times. During their visits, she would often talk about their problems at work. Always wanting to help others, well it helped that she knew Home Depot’s regulations front and back and she wasn’t afraid to “tell it like it is” which they deeply respected her for being so upfront and never talking behind your back. Although she would never solve their problems for them, she would only advise them on what to say and how to say it. It was her way of doing things. She would often tell me about the stories of her co-workers problems she had to fix, giving them a piece of her mind about it. Her dealing with assistant store managers without fear, something regular associates would hesitate to do without a push of encouragement from her. She would tell me all about her day fixing order problems all with a know-it-all smile on her face.
I often would be amazed at how much joy and passion she would have from solving problems. That didn’t just stop at just her work and co-workers but her own family. She took care of her elderly parents until their passing as well as fought for the best level of education for her deaf daughter, even going as far as commuting every weekend from Bakersfield, CA to Riverside, CA for nearly four years so Bianca would have the best high school education for deaf students which help her get into Gallaudet university. She helped her Puerto Rican mother-in-law to pass the certification to become an ESL teacher. As the PTA president for her son’s elementary school, she refused to sign an approval to allow only the sixth grade class to go to summer camp while the whole school participated in the fundraiser. She said if they want to go to camp they should raise their own money and the other classes should get some compensation for their efforts. It made the news and the school board had an emergency meeting which changed the system forever, incidentally she was promptly asked to resign her position after the incident. She even went as far as pushing her son to finish his degree and helping him realize his potential that he didn’t know he had when he graduated at the top of his class. This love and passion will never be forgotten as she raised two college graduates and having a village-size level of loving support and respect from her immediate and extended family and her co-workers. Patricia Perez, Patty, will be deeply missed and her passing will leave a void in her family that will never be filled again.
Thank you for reading this story of my mother’s life spanning the last 20-years. I dedicated my life and time to her well-being and loved every second of it, her ups and downs were mine to share. I am proud to be her son. She was my heart and soul, my love, my joy, she was everything for me: a mother, a best friend, an ear to listen to my troubles, a shoulder to cry on, and my unending wealth of knowledge and she was taken from us. She did so much for others in her life from the beginning that it would take a novel length book to explain all of them. She loved helping others but she can no longer do what she loves. We hope to help take some of the burden off her surviving loved ones that are making arrangements for her passing. The very same loved ones that would gladly trade anything to see her smile, hear her laughing, hear her yelling out answers to her favorite show Family Feud or just listen to her voice as she happily talks about her day over anything else again. I don’t really have an outlet to express my pain, so writing this piece was a very good experience for me in my path to accepting her loss. Thank you for any support given to our cause, it is greatly appreciated.
Organizer and beneficiary
Bianca Veisaida Borrero
Organizer
Bakersfield, CA
Edwin Borrero
Beneficiary