Mom passed away on Thursday, April 21, 2005. The official time of death on the death certificate is 10:20 a.m., but Dad thinks she actually died in the apartment at 9:45 a.m. when they were trying to take her to dialysis by way of an ambulance. Mom had suffered several broken vertebrae as the dialysis and renal diet takes a lot of calcium away from your body. By the end of the previous week she was unable to get in and out of the new car and was using the ambulance to take her to the dialysis center.
She called me on Saturday, that first day she started this new process, and I could tell she was scared. She wanted me to know what was going on and that she loved me. I could tell she was afraid as she told me “I don’t know what’s going to happen” and that just wasn’t like mom to say. She was normally so full of positive thoughts and was not her normal optimistic self. Her voice was shaky and unsettled. She had the ambulance take her that Saturday and the following Tuesday without much incident.
Thursday morning she called me to let me know she had spoken to Shari and James the night before. Her voice was strong and she told me about their conversations and that she was getting ready for dialysis. She probably got off the phone with me about 9:25 a.m. as she said she had to finish getting ready for the ambulance. Once the EMTs got there, she was put on the stretcher and when they laid her down she couldn’t get her breath. They brought her back up and down trying to help her get comfortable. Dad said he thought he heard a noise and mom wasn’t there anymore. The life went out of her, they yelled at her and she couldn’t/didn’t respond. Her body went limp and they worked on her all the way to the hospital, but it was too late.
Dad and I believe she may have had more vertebrae snap during the jostling on the stretcher, possibly even severing her spinal cord. Her body and her heart couldn’t take the pain anymore and shut down. Dad doesn’t think she felt any pain as it happened so fast. In an instant she was gone from this world and on to her heavenly home.
Melody
