Aneurysm Survivor Celebrates Recovery, Thanks Caregivers
One minute Pat Jackson was saying goodbye to friends after a cookout on the Outer Banks, the next she was fighting for her life and awaiting transport by Sentara Nightingale Air Ambulance to Sentara Norfolk General Hospital for emergency surgery.
“It was like a bad dream,” said the 61-year-old who was at the wheel as she and her husband of 28 years, Don, began the drive back to their Virginia Beach home in the fall of 2007.
“It happened so fast I really don’t remember much about it. I told my husband, ‘I have the worst headache I’ve ever had in my life’ and he said ‘just pull over.’”
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| (L-R) Pat and Don Jackson |
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Within minutes she was unconscious. Don, who had taken a CPR class years ago, started chest compressions and CPR, all while frantically dialing 911 for help.
His actions kept Pat alive until paramedics arrived and could take over the CPR. Pat was taken to Albemarle Hospital where she was placed on life support. She had suffered a hemorrhagic stroke, specifically a brain aneurysm, and needed emergency surgery.
Watch or Download a Podcast of Pat Jackson and her husband as they recount the night Pat collapsed in their car.
Lifesaving Flight
Pat was airlifted by Nightingale to Sentara Norfolk General Hospital, certified as a Primary Stroke Center by The Joint Commission. There she could be treated by one of the board certified, fellowship-trained neurosurgeons on staff with the Sentara Neurosciences program.
But first she had to survive the flight.
Irene Schwerin, RN with Nightingale, was on duty that night and remembers Pat, in part because she lives in a neighborhood not far from her.
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| The Nightingale crew who airlifted Pat Jackson reconnects with her at Sentara Nightingale helipad one year after they transported her for emergency surgery. (L-R) John Tucker, EMT-P, Irene Schwerin, RN, Pat Jackson and Dave Bashista, pilot (Ret.). |
“I kept thinking ‘what can I do to make her situation better. What can I do to lower her blood pressure? What would the doctors want me to do before we got there to improve her outcome?’”
Still, Shwerin admits, things did not look good.
“I absolutely thought she was going to die. When I came back in the next morning I thought she would be gone,” she recalled.
Miracle Lady
“The nurses at Sentara Norfolk General Hospital call me a miracle lady because I’m not supposed to be here,” said Pat, who not only survived the flight and the surgery, but was discharged after just 10 days without the need for rehab.
Aside from some short term memory loss, she has made a complete recovery. She knows she is the exception rather than the rule.
“I am a miracle. I am a walking miracle,” she said. “I just don’t have the disabilities other people have after having this type of aneurysm.”
Warning Signs
Despite her good fortune, Pat admits she ignored several warning signs she experienced several weeks before the incident.
“I had signs of this—a headache over my right eye—it would come and go, but I did have pain and my vision was blurred. I kept saying ‘Tomorrow I will go to the doctor.’ You get signs when something is wrong. I got a sign, but I didn’t go.”
In hope that others will heed early warning signs and seek treatment, Sentara is committed to educating the community about neurological diseases such as aneurysm and stroke.
A stroke requires immediate medical attention. One of the warning signs of stroke is a sudden, severe headache with no known cause, such as the one Pat experienced.
Learn about other stroke symptoms and stroke treatment at Sentara.
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| (L-R) Pat and Don Jackson share a conversation at Sentara Norfolk General Hospital. |
Thanking her Caregivers
During fall 2008, near the one year anniversary of her collapse, Pat brought gifts to the staff at Sentara Norfolk General Hospital and presented Nightingale crew with a plaque to honor them for their part in saving her life. It read in part, “Thank you for giving me my future.”
“It’s good to lie down at night and think, ‘Wow, I may have been a link, a part of that positive outcome for her,’” said Nurse Schwerin. “She has her family and they have her back and that’s very career gratifying and personally gratifying.”
Read another Network feature, "When Minutes Count, Nightingale is Ready."
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