A Miracle for Monica - Biography

On June 11, 2001 my 26 year old daughter Monica Sipes was hit by a car. She was on her way to the ballpark riding her 10 speed. She was about three blocks from the ballpark and pulled over to the curb and stopped to take a drink of water. While sitting on the curb, a vehicle driven by a 16 year old newly licensed girl hit Monica from behind sending Monica into the windshield and landing 50 feet from the point of impact. Monica suffered a closed head injury and was non-responsive. She was taken to the hospital that she worked at as a LVN, they responded immediately at saving her life and took x-rays and a CT scan. They did all they could for her there, she was intubated and transferred to a trauma hospital in Amarillo, Texas. This was an extremely hard situation for them to have to deal with, not only was she a victim of a terrible accident but she was their friend and their co-worker.

The helicopter wasn't available at the time so she was transferred by ambulance halfway to Amarillo and then airlifted as soon as the helicopter was available. She was already in a deep coma. Upon arrival at the ER in Amarillo a general evaluation was performed as well as a head CT and a cervical spine CT, chest and pelvis x-rays. The x-rays showed no fractures on the ribs, no clavicle fractures, no fractures of the scapula, and no neck injuries. The head CT showed a comminuted fracture in the right front temporal area. There was a large epidural hematoma with mass effect from right to left. The Dr. diagnosed Monica with right front temporal contusions, epidural hematoma and poly-traumatized patient. She was immediately taken to the operating room for emergency craniotomy. Monica was in a very critical condition.

We were contacted immediately, unable to get any flights out the family drove for twelve hours to get to her. By the time we arrived she had already had surgery, she underwent craniotomy and evacuation of the intracranial hematoma. The bone flap was removed and left out due to swelling of the brain. She was placed on a ventilator and there was a subdural ICP monitor and drain to relieve pressure on her very swollen brain. There were IV tubes, catheter tubes and monitors to check her vitals. It was not a sight that a mother, father, or sibling wants to see. It was heart and gut wrenching to see her so badly hurt. Her face was badly bruised and swollen, her cheek bones, and nose were shattered, and she was totally unrecognizable. We were told that the next 72 hours would determine the outcome and we were given little hope of survival. All we could do was pray and ask God to intervene and that his will be done.

She survived the 72 hours and would encounter many more complications. She was being feed intravenously, but was then put on a PEG feeding tube. She also underwent a tracheotomy. She had numerous infections which were causing very high fevers caused by her central line, which she had several times. Every time a central line was inserted her right lung would be punctured causing another complication and insertion al a drain tube from her lung. She had pneumonia, meningitis, and was not tolerating her feeding which lead to gastric complications and involved the removal of her gallbladder. She had severe swelling on the right side of her head due the fluid not draining; she had to have a spinal lumbar drain tube.

I was told by neurosurgeon that I should consider letting her go. I asked them how I was supposed to do that. We had already asked if the ventilator was keeping her alive. The machine had been turned off, but Monica could breathe on her own and the machine was only making it easier for her to breath. I was told to agree to withhold feeding and hydration. I would not agree to starving her or dehydrating her. That was not something I could not do.

For some unknown reason I remembered a situation that Monica had encountered when she was about 16 years old. My youngest daughter Stephanie had a cat that had a littler of kittens. The mama cat got ran over and a day old kitten was left behind. Monica heard the kitten under the porch and decided that she needed to save that kitten. The kitten had been there for a day before she found it. I remember telling her that there was no way that the kitten would or could make it, and I told her to just let it go. But Monica was determined to give it her best to save that kitten. She was up at all hours feeding the kitten with an eye dropper, keeping it warm and doing all she could. That little kitten pulled through and grew up to a full sized cat. The only thing was it couldn't meow. That gave me the strength and the courage to make up my mind that I had to do what I could to give her a chance. Monica had survived two months and I couldn't just give up on her now.

I was asked to start finding a nursing home for her. On August 14, 2001, I chose to have her transferred to a hospital closer to my home, which was Trinity Mother Francis Hospital in Tyler, TX. There we spent three weeks with the same request to put her in comfort care and let her go. We were told that Monica had suffered a stroke on the right side at some point while she was in Amarillo. They tried to go in and open up the clog but the artery was spasiming and the procedure couldn't be done. Monica was transferred from the ICU floor to comfort care. She had been there about a week and was getting pneumonia and was not being suctioned, she was being left to choke on her own secretions. I had watched the nurses suction her trac tube, so I took it upon myself to suction her. Meanwhile, I looked into a long-term acute hospital in Louisiana, Life Care long-term care. I was able to get her transferred. Here she was treated with dignity and cared for like she needed to be. First, they took care of the immediate complications. They got her over the pneumonia and they started trying to wean her of the trac by plugging off the tube and letting her breath through her mouth. Then, one night I was called about 3 in the morning to let me know that the trac tube had fallen out during the night and the trac site was already closing, but she picked up breathing normally, so that was one less thing to have to deal with.

She started showing signs of awareness. She was put on a medication that is used to help with awareness, Provigil. She was taken to rehabilitation on a daily basis and was diagnosed as semi-comatose. She eventually started tracking and was making good progress. They would place her on a standing table and she tolerated that well. All was being done to keep her arms and legs range of motion. We had been there for about two and a half months and all was looking favorable. I had even returned back to work and was okay with her being in Shreveport. LA which was only about a 45 minute drive to see her. On my regular visit to see her on Friday I was asked to go to the administration office. There I was told that I needed to find a nursing home for Monica because the insurance would no longer pay for her stay and rehabilitation. I couldn't understand why, she had a good insurance with a 2 million maximum payout on claims. She hadn't even used 1 million and she was being denied. It turned out the hospital that she worked for decided to change insurance carriers and since Monica was no longer employed by them they couldn't continue coverage. I called the insurance company and told them I thought that since she was insured with them at the time of the injury that they had to follow her care and pay the claims, but that was not the case. Small fine print got them off the hook stating that they could cancel out. I contacted attorneys, the governor, senator, you name it and I kept getting the same story, no one would take the case. We ended up getting on Cobra insurance which was not good for Monica as she was out of network and they wouldn't pay for any of her care here in East Texas.

I was asked again to try to find to a nursing home. But she was still not on Medicare or Medicaid. I couldn't pay private pay for her nursing care because it would cost around $3,000 a month. She couldn't get on Medicaid because she had a savings account that contained more money than you are allowed to have to qualify, but not enough to pay for maybe two months stay. We couldn't even touch the account anyway because it was still locked awaiting legalities. We applied for Medicare, but I found out that she would have to wait two years after being diagnosed with a disability before she could start receiving health insurance. We were really in a pickle and she was to be discharged in two days. The only choice I had was to quite my job. I didn't even have time to give a two week notice. I was taken through a one hour observation of how to care for Monica. I was shown how to give her medications and take care of the Peg tube and give her feedings. I was shown to bathe her, dress her. and transfer her from bed to chair and chair to bed. I was also taught how to work with her to keep range of motion of her arms and legs. She was sent home still semi-comatose and minimally conscious. I was terrified and wasn't sure how I was going to do this. But, by the grace of God I have been able to care for her for about six years now.

Monica is now 34 years old. She is a victim of traumatic brain injury also having suffered a mild stroke during the first two weeks after the injury. She has little mobility of her arms and legs, cannot eat and is tube fed. She can not walk or talk, but is aware of her surroundings and laughs appropriately. She communicates through blinks. She seems to blink twice for yes and once for no. I now take care of her at home and work with her daily trying to keep what little motor skills she has and am always searching for some kind of breakthrough to help her advance to the next level. We have had many complications since she was sent home. We have dealt with urinary tract infections, eye infections, stones in her bile duct (which required an ERCP procedure), chest congestions, and one case of mild pneumonia.

I have tried getting her into rehabilitation, but no one will accept her because she can't respond to commands. We did have speech, physical and occupational therapists come to our home to work with her, but the problem with home therapy is their care is very short term. I think the longest we had was the speech pathologist who worked with her for about 3 months. We are now on our own. I do what I can to care for her on a daily basis, but her inability to communicate makes it hard to know what to do for her when she encounters distress.

Our home was not handicap accessible when I brought her home. We live in a single wide 14X80 mobile home that I have had for 28 years. Monica's room is a small 14X11 room and it contains her hospital bed, wheelchair, Hoyer lift, dresser and medicine cabinet. It is difficult to move around when I am transferring her from bed to chair and visa versa. Her outings are very minimal, from her room to the living area and to the kitchen. Her chair takes up a lot of room, but we make due. Her outside outings are not often; we have a ramp out to the front of the house and out the back yard, but that is as far as we can take her because we have no sidewalks. The land is very rough and rocky and the wheelchair doesn't roll very smooth. I do have a screened in gazebo out back, but the weather here in East Texas doesn't allow for very many times to get outside.

She seems to be content now that she is home. She likes watching TV and enjoys having our little angels her nieces and nephew visit her. These children have always loved her unconditionally from the time they were babies old enough to express love and affection by giving hugs and kisses. She gives them her undivided attention and laughs appropriately at the cute little things that they do and say. Monica still has her humor because you can speak to her and she responds to things appropriately with a smile, a little laughter or if it is really funny a breath taking laughter. I will take care of Monica as long as God gives me the strength and ability to do so. I do worry about a lot of things. I wonder how long this old house will hold up before it starts falling apart as it is already starting to show some wear. My husband isn't able to do much as far as home repairs because he has had four heart surgeries and also has degenerative disk disease. He recently underwent back surgery (a level 2 fusion.) I do whatever needs to be done. I worry when it storms because I have no place to take shelter with Monica. We have a storm shelter, but getting Monica down in it is very hard. My son and I did have to carry her down in the shelter last summer, but it wasn't an easy task and getting her out was even more difficult. I try not to let worries consume my day as it only interferes with my emotions and complicates things. We are blessed to have Monica each and everyday that God gives us.