In March of 2018 I received a really frantic and unexpected call from my youngest brother, Kyle who was 19 at the time. My mom had collapsed, he tried to preform CPR to no avail, and he was waiting for the ambulance to arrive. Once they did, they were able to get her heart beating again and immediately rushed her to the hospital. My mom had suffered cardiac arrest and spent the next 8 days in the hospital’s ICU wing on life support. She was unable to make any progress or recover from the traumatic brain injury which was a result of the loss of oxygen to her brain while waiting for the paramedics. She passed away at 55 years old on April 8th, 2018, just about a month before her 56th birthday. I should add that my mom was a very severe alcoholic and smoker for all of my life, and these addictions aided to her passing away so young.
Just when my family thought 2018 couldn’t get any worse in terms of grief, on Christmas day 2018 I received a call from my aunt that my youngest brother Kyle had overdosed. When he was found, he had a very faint pulse and was rushed to the hospital where he was kept on life support for three days and passed away at the age of 20. We believe he was struggling with the loss of our mom and didn’t really know how to cope anymore. Both my mom and brother were organ donors and saved the lives of 10 people combined.
