RIP Darlene Rietz.

[Daemonsmommy]

On Sunday, 2/22/09, my hubby's aunt Darlene wasn't feeling well. She had an upset stomach but her and her hubby went to breakfast anyway. On the way home they had to pull over so she could get sick. They went home, she laid on the couch and they watched a movie. After the movie, Uncle Bill asked how she was doing and she said she felt much better so they decided to walk around Target for awhile. While they were at target she started to feel sick again so she went to the bathroom while uncle Bill waited for her. 15-20 minutes later a woman walked out and asked if he was waiting for someone. Uncle Bill said "Yeah. my wife is in the bathroom and I am waiting for her." The woman informed him that there was a lady passed out in a bathroom stall. Uncle Bill rushed into the bathroom to find Aunt Darlene white as a sheet, not breathing and she had a very faint heartbeat. Someone called 911 while he tried to get her breathing. When the paramedics got there and they lifted her onto the gerney, her heart stopped. They got her into the ambulance and did CPR all the way to the hospital. She was rushed into the ICU and put on life support. They did a test to measure brain activity and her brain was doing fine but she had slipped into a coma. They didn't know what happened so they ran a bunch of tests.

On Monday they put her in cooling blankets to slow down her body so they would have more time to find out what was wrong and what had happened. They continued to run tests but still didn't know what had happened. They thought she had a massive heart attack but couldn't say for sure that that was what had happened. They continued to monitor her brain activity and at some point during the day her brain activity ceased. It only blipped a little when Uncle Bill talked to her.

Tuesday morning uncle Bill signed a DNR. They did a test on her at 1pm that had a 75% chance of stopping her heart. Thankfully the test did not stop her heart and they had gotten her left arm to respond to pain. I had a physical therepy appointment at 3:30 and when it was over, we were one parking lot from the hospital. Ryan and I decided to run over to the hospital since we had not gotten an update at it was 4:30. As we were walking toward the doors to the hospital, Ryan's mom calls. She tells us that Aunt Darlene has passed away. We continue up there and by the time we make it up there, everyone is in tears. We find out that her son, Ryan's cousin Bruce, had been taken to the ER to get sedated because it took several men to pull him away from his mother's body. Bruce is only 20 and has now been prescribed mild seditives to take for atleast a week.Aunt Darlene was only 52. The cause of her death was a combination of undiagnosed diabetes and a heart arrhythmia. According to the doctors, they did a test that checked what her blood sugar was at for the past 30 days and it was between 300-400. Normal levels are around 90.The doctor said that most people have heart arrhythmias but our bodies fix it on it's own but because her blood sugar was so high, it messed with everything else and her heart couldn't fix its self.

Today 2/24/09 was her funeral and it was hard. Ryan still hasn't broken down yet despite his aunt/god mother has passed away. The service was beautiful and I was surprised at how well Uncle Bill, Bruce and Becky(her daughter) handled it. Becky is 28 and married so she has someone else to help her but Uncle Bill and Bruce have to get used to living at home without her there. Bruce was sedated thankfully. No one knows how bad he could have been if he hadn't been. I don't blame him because he was a huge momma's boy so losing his mom is one of the hardest things he's ever had to deal with.

Please keep our family in your prayers. I know God took Aunt Darlene because it was her time and she did what she was meant to do on this earth. I also know that God will help Uncle Bill, Bruce, Becky and little Bill(Becky's husband)  through this. Please keep the Rietz family in your prayers, right now they need all the help they can get. This was a huge loss for them. Aunt Darlene was a very strong woman and she took care of everyone. Now they have to learn how to do things on their own.

For those that actually took the time to read this, thank you very much. I know this is long so thank you for bearing with me and reading all of it.

~Manda~