I got a phone call Tuesday morning from my stepdad telling me my mum was in hospital, after a few tests they suspected she had meningitis again (she'd had it 13 years ago) They put her in intensive care, on a ventilator to help her breathe, sedation, antibiotics etc, and gradually by Friday we were told that her temperature was still high, but that was down to the infection, but the signs were looking fairly good - they were seeing what they expected to see as she was recovering slowly, so much so the nurse said for the kids to make her cards, draw her pictures, take her a teddy bear etc so she'd see them when she woke up. Yesterday morning at just after 7am my stepdad rang and said hospital had phoned him and she'd deteriorated overnight so we needed to get there. After talking to the drs they wanted to try another type of antibiotic but couldn't promise anything, at lunchtime they did more tests and said she was showing complete kidney failure and a small heart attack, as well as signs of liver failure and low blood pressure, so any immediate family that could get there should, but before evening. By 12.45 her bp had dropped even more but they gave her some medication to keep her stable while my brother got there but it didn't help and at 1.30 she suffered a massive heart attack and died peacefully in her sleep - sadly my brother missed her by minutes. So as I'm sure you'll appreciate right now I'm extremely shellshocked - trying to stay strong for my 4 babies and my stepdad - all while trying to come to terms with it myself as it was sudden and unexpected
