As told by her sister, Heather.
I experienced a blood clot. I survived. My sister didn’t.
Around Thanksgiving of 2020, my 18-year-old sister Faith began complaining of chest pain and shortness of breath, and then she passed out at work. Over the next three days, my parents took her to the doctor three times, where they did three rounds of blood tests. The doctor eventually told her, “You are a healthy 18-year-old, go home and drink Hawaiian punch and Sprite and you’ll be fine.”
On the morning of December 4, 2020, my mom went to check on my sister and her lips were blue, and her breathing was shallow. They got her up to try to get her to the hospital, and that is likely when the blood clot moved. My sister passed then, and my mom began CPR till paramedics arrived. They used the CPR band instead of chest compressions, which brought her back, but unbeknownst to us, they lacerated her liver in half.
Paramedics got her to the hospital, where the ER doctor said he saw the pulmonary embolism, they caught it, and he had a good prognosis. However, on the CT he missed the lacerated liver, and when they administered the clot-busting medication, it caused her to bleed out. Over the next 12 hours, doctors used 110 units of blood to try to keep my sister alive but were never able to stop the bleeding and get to the clot.
After 12 hours, doctors eventually pronounced her brain dead, and I had to turn the machines off of my baby sister. I was with her the day she was born, I cut her umbilical cord, and I was the one to end it. And it has haunted me.
I didn’t just lose my sister that day, I lost my entire family. To this day, my mom can’t sleep through the night without screaming. I never see my surviving siblings. A simple misdiagnosis robbed me of my entire family that night.
That is why I became a Thrombassador for NBCA, to help educate not just patients but also doctors that this can happen. A perfectly healthy 18-year-old can absolutely get blood clots, and they can be fatal.
My little sister was the kind of person who could walk into a room full of strangers and walk out with a room full of friends. She was unanimously voted captain of her varsity softball team and asked to come back the next year to help coach. She had just graduated high school at the height of Covid, had just bought her first car, just got her first job, and had just enrolled in her first semester of college. Her life was just beginning. And then it ended.
Always remember to advocate for yourself. You know your body better than anybody else. Please don’t ignore the symptoms or the symptoms of others. Get a second opinion if needed.
