She's home - 5/2/10

Where do I start? After nine long days of ups and downs, and the amazing amount of help we received from an incredible number of people, Jill finally came home at about 6pm this evening. For most who go through this process, this is a dream scenario to go home in nine days. We are blessed to be so fortunate looking back but it was a grueling for all of us. Today, the doctors felt the pain in Jill's chest from the surgery, the pneumonia, her white blood cell count and a few other issues were well enough to let her chose whether she was ready to go home or not. There wasn't a lot of thought as the answer was a resounding "yes". We packed up all of her stuff and made the trek home. She ate her first real meal in nine days which was really nice as she was getting the cardiac diet due to being in the cardiac unit at the hospital. I won't go into the details about the cardiac diet but suffice it say it's the blandest food you can possibly imagine.

Now that Jill is home, we are going to set up a way for everyone to come see her. She is still very weak and has a great deal of recovery to do over the next couple of months but being home and seeing her friends and family will aid in her recovery. Tomorrow, we'll post something here on what the process will be so everyone can see her while still giving her some time off to rest and heal.

This ordeal has been amazing. Now that we seem to be out of the woods, I have to mention some of the people that made this miracle happen and how truly blessed we are that these people were in the right place at the right time.

When Jill collapsed last Saturday, there were three people that administered CPR to her for approximately 10-15 minutes prior to the paramedics arriving, Sue Selinske, Mary Lesh and Mathew Breta. These three are heroes and Jill wouldn't be here today without them. I just want to briefly describe their role and how heroic they were last Saturday.

Sue Selinske - After Jill collapsed, I was trying to get a response from her while she was going through what looked kind of like a seizure. Sue raced over to the dugout and was also trying to communicate with Jill. Suddenly, without notice, Jill stopped this seizure like process and stopped breathing. She actually started to turn purple so we knew right away she wasn't getting any air. Without hesitation, Sue started breathing for Jill and performed CPR until Mary arrived. Every second without air causes damage to brain. Sue's responsiveness at the second Jill stopped breathing was critical in Jill having all of her faculties working today.

Mary Lesh - Mary was a parent of the one of the boys on the opposing team. I don't believe Mary knew Jill prior to last Saturday. When Mary saw the situation starting to unfold, she raced over to Jill and took over the situation and started doing the chest compressions. Mary never hesitated and performed these chest compressions, checked for pulse, etc for about 10 minutes until the paramedics arrived. I can't imagine how this would've of been different if we were playing another team and Mary wasn't there.

Mathew Breta - Mathew was the scorekeeper at Trent's game that day. He is a 17-year old high school student that just recently finished taking his CPR class (thank heavens). Mathew hurried down to Jill's aid when he saw everything unfolding and joined Mary in doing CPR on Jill. Mathew did all the breathing for Jill as well as measuring her pulse, etc. He and Mary were the perfect team. Neither Mary nor Mathew knew Jill before the game, but regardless both moved aggressively forward to her aid and kept her alive during during a very trying period in which she stopped breathing 3 or 4 times before the paramedics arrived to relieve them. I can't imagine how things may have turned out if we weren't lucky enough to have Mathew score keeping that day.

All of us are dearly indebted to these three for their heroism. It's one thing to step to forefront when the life you are trying to save is family member or a friend. It's another when you are doing it as a job. But to step forward when you really don't have to and save a person you don't know, is even more heroic and shows deep down what kind of people these three really are. I don't know if the three of you are reading this blog but if you are, thank you from the bottom of my heart. You've saved a very special person to all of her family and friends. You will always be heroes!