This memorial website was created to remember our dearest Rita Belcher who was born in Virginia on July 20, 1950 and passed away on November 28, 2008. You will live forever in our memories and hearts.
As most of you know by now, mom had been sick for the past 4 months of her life. After a back surgery that was supposed to make her better, she started going downhill. For those of you that don't know, I will fill you in on what happened.
She had her back surgery at the end of August, she was in the hospital for 4 days for that and then they sent her home. Now keep in mind that when they did the surgery that they didn't require her to stay in a brace or do any kind of physical therapy, I guess she was supposed to just go back to doing everyday things after she had just had a major operation on her spine. She came home and was only home for 3 days when I ended up having to call the paramedics because she was sleeping for around 22 hours a day and had started wheezing.
I knew something was wrong but everybody just kept saying that it was normal and I was overreacting. When I called the paramedics and they arrived they immediately wanted to know how long she had been like that. Her oxygen level was only at around 30% and it's supposed to be above atleast 80%. We thought for sure that we were going to lose her that night. They took her to the hospital and put her in ICU, where she stayed for 4 weeks and then they put her in PCU for 1 week. She had no recollection of anything, she didn't remember going home after her back surgery, she didn't know how long she had been in the hospital, she didn't know that she had been in ICU, she didn't know that she had been on a ventilator for almost 3 weeks, and she definately didn't know the severity of everything she had been through. She was oblivious to all of it.
To be continued....
