Support Nhu's Fight for Recovery

On November 1st, my mom Nhu suffered a severe hemorrhagic stroke in her brain stem that has left her unresponsive. The first few hours on November 1st were filled with transferring my mom from Valley Medical and then to Harborview ICU, where nurses and doctors rushed around trying to relieve the pressure of not just her brain, but also her spinal cord.

Her medical team informed us over and over that her lack of any reflexes spelled a fatal outcome and that we need to “expect the worst.” Every hour for the past two months, my mom has slowly been fighting her way back. The first two weeks, she regained her eye dilation reflex; every time she would barely pass the dilation test, my family and I would cry and cheer for mom’s little wins. It continued like this every day for the last two months. Mom would become more consistent with her pupil dilations, and then start reacting to stimuli like pinches. At the same time, my sisters and I were receiving information from her care team about how extremely severe her stroke had been and it was “in the worst possible place” for a hemorrhage to happen. Doctors would tell me that we ‘weren’t being realistic’ because we asked for more time to see if she could progress further.

My family and I would come to Mom’s bedside with our hopes depleted and Mom shows us the smallest glimmer that she was still fighting to the best of her ability and that most days, even with life support, she barely kept her head above water. In the following weeks she has undergone a tracheostomy, had the back of her skull removed, a shunt placed into her skull to help drain the brain fluids, a feeding tube was placed, she was taken off ventilation, put back on and then off again and has fought many infections. We are truly in awe with how hard mom has been fighting for the last two months. She continues to show us how fragile life can be while also showing us her immense strength.

Today, she is in a skilled nursing facility, but is still unresponsive to things like asking her to squeeze our hands. Mom will open her eyes often with her gaze fixed. The previous weeks she has shown that when I call her repeatedly, she will try to move her head or open her eyes toward the sounds. Over the last couple of weeks, Mom is fighting infections that has left her unresponsive to stimuli. She is on oxygen and antibiotics.

Truthfully, we don’t know if mom will ever wake up from this state, but every movement and every day that she tries has been a win for her and us. My oldest sister has been hard at work trying to get mom covered for insurance, but in November, the first month Mom was hospitalized, she was denied Medicaid assistance. We’ve ask Harborview to forgive my mom’s debt of over half a million dollars (as of 1/17: $551,663.83), but the status is unknown at this time. Any funds that you donate will be used towards mom’s recovery and getting her affairs in order.

Thank you so much for taking the time to read this and for your consideration,

The Duong Family