JULIE/NORMA NEARLY DIED

Julie Hitchcock, aka Norma Bates, is very private so this may be the first you are hearing about this but:

Julie almost died.

(Photo taken in the ICU by her sister, Carrie.)

(Photo by Moosie!)

Back at the beginning of October, she thought she had the flu.  So did some physician’s assistant she visited a few days in. But it turns out she had pneumonia, two kinds at the same time _ but she didn’t find  that out until later.

She missed work on and off for a week, trying to power through it. But after a week, she could barely take a  shower without having to sit on the edge of the tub to catch her breath. “Everything I did was exhausting,” she said.

So she went back to the PA on Oct. 7. But before she was even seated in the exam room, a nurse had called the ambulance for her. They got her an oxygen tank. 

“Apparently my lips were kind of blueish at that point, my fingernails were turning blue,” she said.

It turns out her lungs were working at less than half their capacity.

This is when she almost died.

Once she got to the hospital, doctors put her into a  coma and put a ventilator down her throat to help get the oxygen that she needed.

She was  in “Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome”.  According to that Mayo Clinic link, "Many people who develop ARDS don't survive."

They even thought her organs could end up failing because she was getting so little oxygen. 

That first 48 hours, doctors said, it was hour to hour. Her parents had a priest come in to give her the “Sacrament of the Sick.”  

The infectious disease team descended on her ICU room. After a couple of days, they determined she had both viral pneumonia AND a-typical bacterial pneumonia.

She was in a coma for six LONG days. 

She finally went home after 12 days in the ICU on  Oct. 19. This is definitely the happiest of developments because Julie/Norma is ALIVE.

But that is NOT the end of the story. 

She’s estimated to have at least $10,000 in medical bills and lost wages for the last two months, while she’s been out of work sick or recovering. She’s gotten some help from family, but they can only help for so long. And it’s stressing her out.

That’s where we come in with the Gofundme. Friends plan to hold an event down the road to raise money as well.

“It’s hard to sleep. Every time I try to I just lie there thinking about it,” she said. 

 “I’m afraid I’m going to lose my house,” she said. “It’s hard because money is so personal. It’s really hard to be vulnerable and ask for help.”

It’s still early and bills are just starting to come in, so we may need to increase the goal, but here’s what she needs now: 

_$5,000 medical deductible  

_$887 for a 3 mile ambulance ride,

_Physical therapy at $30/session with min of 5 session

_2 months off work without pay.

Doctors say she is recovering well, but it’s a slow recovery. She’s takes lots of naps. ”I have about an hour worths of energy to do stuff right now,” she said.

Her boyfriend, Ilija, takes her two dogs for walks twice a day because even that is too much right now.



“I want to be able to walk my dogs myself. I want to be able to ... walk around a grocery store. My friends have been generous and incredible but I would like to go back to being independent.”

She goes back to work Dec. 2 _ two months after first feeling sick. 

She also has to go to the cardiologist in January to make sure her heart is OK after all of this.

She has a two-week hole in her life and missed most of fall. 

“I keep hearing about it from other people. Mostly I just feel so bad that I frightened so many people, it was really hard on my parents, my sister, my brother-in-law,  nephews, my friends. I really worried them.”