Kathy Barrett's Recovery Fund
Donation protected
Kathy came on a family vacation in Virginia Beach to watch her daughter get married, and spend time with family. She had made plans to check off a bucket list item to go skydiving. Kathy left for her skydive the morning of May 24th....none of us knew just how tragic it would end up.
The video footage of her skydive looks like she was having fun, but the landing didn't go according to plan. She knew when she landed something was wrong. The paramedics came and took her by ambulance to Sentara Norfolk General Hospital. X-rays were taken and they found she had fractured her right femur in 3 places. Surgery was set for the following morning May 25th.
Kathy was in good spirits the morning of surgery, we kissed her goodbye not knowing what would come next. Less than an hour after she went back for surgery we received the most terrifying phone call from the surgical team telling us Kathy had gone into cardiac arrest in the operating room and that CPR had saved her life. We quickly gathered ourselves and hurried back to the hospital...when we arrived we were informed that that they had performed CPR 2 more times, and that she would be transferred to the intensive care unit.
Kathy was intubated for breathing support, and her medical team began trying to figure out how they would save her life. They found that she had a lacerated liver and spleen, fractured ribs and sternum, and that the right side of her heart was failing. The ICU doctor was preparing us for the worst...that Kathy was not going to live.
The night of the 25th they took Kathy down for a procedure to stop the bleeding from her liver, and gave her a blood transfusion. This was the pivotal moment that turned things around. She was on medications to help her heart, hold her blood pressure up, and getting several blood products. There were talks of a type of life support called ECMO to help take the burden off of her heart, but luckily things slowly began to stabilize. By the morning of May 27th the medical team told us that to their surprise she was doing well enough to take her off the breathing machine. Minutes after Kathy woke up, and was able to speak she asked her nurse "What are my goals?"... she was back, but not out of the woods yet.
She was finally cleared for surgery on May 29th in which they were able to fix her fractured femur, but did result in another night on the breathing machine. She is projected to have several more weeks in the hospital before she starts her long rehabilitation including re-learning everyday tasks like walking, eating, sitting up...the things we all take for granted when we are healthy and independent.
Her fighting spirit is fully intact! She wants to follow every order from the therapy team...she even asked if we could wake her up every hour to do her breathing exercises, but she also needs sleep.
She has officially been declared stable!!!!!! We are so thankful for all of the thoughts, prayers, cards, and positive vibes, and are getting ready for the long road to recovery. Kathy will have to stay in Virginia as she will be unable to fly for 4-6 weeks, part of this stay will include inpatient rehab where she will get 3 hours of physical therapy a day for 2-3 weeks.
As you may or may not know Kathy is a contracted employee working for herself, and because of this she does not have any form of disability insurance. The trauma team at Sentara Norfolk General project that she will not be able to return to work until she is fully recovered which we are hopeful will be 4-5 months.
We wanted to start this fundraiser to help offset our Mom’s financial burden from missing time at work and medical expenses. With the help of Biz's husband we put together a tee-shirt for donation. Anyone that knows Kathy knows that she loves her family and friends, and has always taken care of us. Well, now it's our turn to take care of her.
Email [email redacted] if you would like a tee-shirt. We want to post and tag as many Kathy supporters wearing their shirts to keep her morale high through her recovery!!!!!
Thank you to you all for your support!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The video footage of her skydive looks like she was having fun, but the landing didn't go according to plan. She knew when she landed something was wrong. The paramedics came and took her by ambulance to Sentara Norfolk General Hospital. X-rays were taken and they found she had fractured her right femur in 3 places. Surgery was set for the following morning May 25th.
Kathy was in good spirits the morning of surgery, we kissed her goodbye not knowing what would come next. Less than an hour after she went back for surgery we received the most terrifying phone call from the surgical team telling us Kathy had gone into cardiac arrest in the operating room and that CPR had saved her life. We quickly gathered ourselves and hurried back to the hospital...when we arrived we were informed that that they had performed CPR 2 more times, and that she would be transferred to the intensive care unit.
Kathy was intubated for breathing support, and her medical team began trying to figure out how they would save her life. They found that she had a lacerated liver and spleen, fractured ribs and sternum, and that the right side of her heart was failing. The ICU doctor was preparing us for the worst...that Kathy was not going to live.
The night of the 25th they took Kathy down for a procedure to stop the bleeding from her liver, and gave her a blood transfusion. This was the pivotal moment that turned things around. She was on medications to help her heart, hold her blood pressure up, and getting several blood products. There were talks of a type of life support called ECMO to help take the burden off of her heart, but luckily things slowly began to stabilize. By the morning of May 27th the medical team told us that to their surprise she was doing well enough to take her off the breathing machine. Minutes after Kathy woke up, and was able to speak she asked her nurse "What are my goals?"... she was back, but not out of the woods yet.
She was finally cleared for surgery on May 29th in which they were able to fix her fractured femur, but did result in another night on the breathing machine. She is projected to have several more weeks in the hospital before she starts her long rehabilitation including re-learning everyday tasks like walking, eating, sitting up...the things we all take for granted when we are healthy and independent.
Her fighting spirit is fully intact! She wants to follow every order from the therapy team...she even asked if we could wake her up every hour to do her breathing exercises, but she also needs sleep.
She has officially been declared stable!!!!!! We are so thankful for all of the thoughts, prayers, cards, and positive vibes, and are getting ready for the long road to recovery. Kathy will have to stay in Virginia as she will be unable to fly for 4-6 weeks, part of this stay will include inpatient rehab where she will get 3 hours of physical therapy a day for 2-3 weeks.
As you may or may not know Kathy is a contracted employee working for herself, and because of this she does not have any form of disability insurance. The trauma team at Sentara Norfolk General project that she will not be able to return to work until she is fully recovered which we are hopeful will be 4-5 months.
We wanted to start this fundraiser to help offset our Mom’s financial burden from missing time at work and medical expenses. With the help of Biz's husband we put together a tee-shirt for donation. Anyone that knows Kathy knows that she loves her family and friends, and has always taken care of us. Well, now it's our turn to take care of her.
Email [email redacted] if you would like a tee-shirt. We want to post and tag as many Kathy supporters wearing their shirts to keep her morale high through her recovery!!!!!
Thank you to you all for your support!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Organizer
Elizabeth Hammond
Organizer
Centennial, CO