Our Christmas Miracle

Thursday at 9:21 am, I received a text message from my mom telling me that her and my dad were taking my Grandma Velda (my dad's mom) to the Cottonwood hospital since she wasn't feeling very well. The previous Sunday, she had been admitted in the Grangeville hospital for exceptionally high blood pressure. Anyway, the text came a little scrambled but I just figured she would get back to me and explain what she had meant. At 9:24am, my brother Brad called me and told me that my Grandma had passed away. At this time, I was on the other phone with Bradley so they both heard me break down into hysterics and yelling "No!". It was crazy!!! I immediately called my boss, went home and started packing the family up to go to Cottonwood and be with the family. At 9:39, my brother called again and said, "Did you hear, they revived her???" I was at first angry because I thought it was some cruel joke but after calming down, he explained it all to me so, here you go...

When I received my text from Mom, they were on the way from Grangeville to Cottonwood. Both towns are 14 miles apart. As they started going through Fenn (it really only takes a couple seconds to do so), Grandma started complaining that she was getting warm and wanted to take her coat off. They were traveling in her Durango with Dad driving, Grandma in the passenger seat and Mom in the back behind her. That is when Mom sent the jumbled text. She reached forward to help Grandma take off her coat and they said she made a big exhale of air and leaned forward...only being held up by the seat belt and her eyes were wide open. Mom immediately unbuckled and started trying to find a pulse but there was none to be found. She told my dad that she was gone. The next thing was to either get her to the hospital or pull over, call 911 and start CPR. They decided to drive as fast as humanly possible (roughly 115 mph from what I was told), call ahead to 911 and let them know they were coming and see what the outcome would be. After calling 911, my mom called my brother to call the rest of the family and let them know...which, is when I found out...a whole whopping 3 minutes after this happened.

When they pulled into the ER at St. Mary's Hospital in Cottonwood, a team of nurses, including my mom's best friend Teena, met them at the door. They immediately started CPR and within a minute or so, they said Grandma just opened her eyes and started looking around. She doesn't remember a thing!!! After an EKG and CAT scan, they set her up in a room and fed her lunch!! Can you believe it, within hours of having life-saving CPR done after being without a pulse for about 10 minutes, she was eating lunch!! The doctors aren't sure what exactly caused her to "die" but they are assuming it was from a UTI that made it's way into the bloodstream. My brother Dave and his family as well as my family of 5 came up that afternoon and gathered together to do what a family does. That evening, she had an MRI. The next day, my Aunt Vivian came and visited with her as well.

This morning, when all of us had left to come home (we all had to go back to work), they received the results from the MRI. She has a benign tumor in her brain which they say is pressing against her pituitary gland causing her to have problems with her vision. They are going to keep her until at least Monday since her blood pressure was starting to spike again this morning. It was a whirlwind of a day and quite the crazy couple of days. I am especially happy to know that all those people who care deeply for my Grandma were able to come and give her the support she needed during this crazy time. I guess those Mundt women are pretty darn tough!!! Thanks also to all my friends who called with love and kindness during this ordeal, you will truly be blessed in life because, we all know now that miracles happen everyday!