The day I found out I was pregnant, I was very nervous, excited and scared all at the…
A woman walks into Los Angeles County hospital with a complaint of abdominal pain. After being checked in, hospital staff sees that she has recently been there three other times for the same complaint. She is seated in the waiting room. She vomits blood and collapses on the floor; her family urgently contacts staff informing them of her problem. They ignore the complaint. The family becomes so panicked they call 911 from a payphone near the entrance, only to find that they too ignore the complaint, telling them that there is nothing that they can do. A bystander in the waiting room sees the distress and the blood on the floor, he too calls 911, this time the emergency dispatcher chastises the caller and tells him "This line is for emergency purposes only " For 45 minutes this woman lays on the floor vomiting blood while hospital staff stands by and housekeeping mops the floor around her. She died soon after. (Ornstien)…
On September 8th 1990, it was a hot sunny day in the city of Cali, Colombia. Temperature around 88°F with very low humidity, normal for that time of year, since the summer was about to begin. A sky full of altocumulus clouds cooled the estimated population of about 1.7 million people ("1990 population estimate for Cali, Colombia."). Among that population there was my mother. Already late for her gynecology appointment, inconveniently causes by a car accident, she would shortly find out when I would be entering the world. The accident turned a 20-minute drive in a 45-minute drive. Rushing into the clinic, as the doctor’s assistant was calling her name, she rapidly was taken to the back to speak with the provider. When the doctor came into the room he calmly said, “I have good news, and bad news”. My mom’s heart already racing she decided to go with the bad news first. “The probability of being a complicated birth is pretty high, which means the surgical team will have to perform a cesarean section instead of a vaginal birth”. My mother relived thinking it would be something much worse she asked the doctor to go ahead with the good news. “The baby will probably be arriving today”. My mom became frantic, “that’s the good news? They might as well both have been bad! My mother panicked, she had nothing ready for the birth, since her first child was not due for another 10 days. Her hormone levels raging at an all time sky high, she shortly began to cry. The doctor and his staff hugged her and reassured her that everything was going to be ok. They quickly rushed her to the hospital where they would have all the equipment in the event that there were any major complications. Once she was all settled in, the operating room staff started to prepare for the birth around 3:15 P.M. The staff thought I was ready to come out, however I took another three hours to make my grand appearance. At 6:23 PM I arrived spreading my arms and legs with a…
I sprinted down the road wondering what had just happened because it was a miracle that I was even alive. Options played over in my head of who saved my life, but all of my answers were unrealistic. I had reached the apartment and fumbled my way through the door while trying to fish for the spare set of keys, mother had given me, out of my pocket. Finally, I had retrieved them, but my stick, gloves, and skates were scattered around the small enclosed entrance to my sector. With one foot I held the door open and with the other I stretched across the room reaching for my things. One skate and one glove was all I could reach, so I took a different approach. I sprawled across the floor, lying on my stomach leaving my feet in the doorway. The door was crushing my legs, it was made out of solid metal. Although it was much more efficient because I had retrieved the rest of my belongings and was able to head up to my home. Jogging across the second floor, scanning each door for the number fifteen. Eventually I was standing in front of my door, grasping the brass lock attached to the wooden door. Splinters stuck out like a sharp rock pit, on the cusp of sticking into my hand as I gently pushed the door open. I dropped my stuff on the floor and ran to the kitchen where mother had been cooking supper for father and…
I went to go see my doctor down the street where I lived. . Running through the side alleys to avoid the busy streets as they projected an ambience of noise and dizziness. I hurried to the doctors. At once I got there, seeing my doctor discussing something I could not hear. He saw me with my skin red and pale as I was gasping for air about…
At 12:30 at night on June 1, 2015, my life would soon change forever. I was pregnant with my first child and my water had just broken. My mom rushed me to the hospital where I was immediately put in a private room, in the hospital bed where I was about to deliver my first child, a son. He came so quickly (5 & 1/2 hours in total) and I had requested no pain medications and turned it down on several occasions as the medical staff pleaded with me to use it. The pain began to become more and more unbearable, so much so that I honestly felt paralyzed from my waist down. My body was taking over to my surprise and I was just there with my legs in stirrups. They seemed immovable and with the pains coming faster, it is as if they stopped receiving any of the signals my brain was sending to them.…
He hugged me tight and told me repeatedly, “It’s going to be ok baby! Be strong! I love you so much!” The doctor grabs a scalpel and forceps and the pain consumes me. I let out shrilling cry and then my body collapses as the pain diminishes from what would be a ten on the pain scale, to a four or five. Then we heard the baby scream as the doctor placed him on my chest. Overwhelmed with joy, we began to sob.…
I will remember that day as the day that I will use as an example of why the world needs to change. I remember that day as the moment I can remember to allow myself to cry. I will remember that day as the day I realized what the world had become. I will remember that day as the day I became angry at the world for allowing someone to do something of that sort. I will remember that day as the day I realized how hurt others must feel if I couldn't even hold myself together. I will remember that day as the day I took no pictures and didn’t write about my experience immediately after. I will remember that as the day that I took the harshness of reality in, and realized how much I yearned to change it. I will remember that day as the day that I felt more helpless than ever before. I will remember that day as the day that I sat in an empty car for ten minutes trying to control myself. I will remember that day as the day I will never forget. I will remember that day as the day that broke me, in order to make me. I will remember that day as the start of the story I will tell others when they ask why I am doing what I am doing. I will remember that day as the second most memorable day of my life, the second most emotionally painful day of my life. I will remember that day as the day I decided I will not let the world become worse than it is. I will remember that day…
That was the day that my grandpa passed away. Every single part of that date is engrained in my memory. My parents had driven up to Wisconsin, and my older sister Lauren drove home for college to stay with me. It wasn’t out of the normal for my parents to quickly leave, so I didn’t think much of it. I remember going to hang out with Tatum, my best friend of the time. It was a nice day outside, so of course we were outside playing on the trampoline and doing all our weird routines like we always did. Her family, who was like a second family to me, decided to go out to eat so they brought me along. We went to La Charitas. I remember how Mrs. Teeple pulled out a funny card game for us to play, and I remember Tatum cutting out faces in her tortilla, making us all laugh. When we got back to the house we saw that my sister called, so I said bye to the Teeples and walked one minute down the road to my house. Lauren, who is one of the most emotional in the family, was left with the task of telling me that my grandpa had passed away. I had just grabbed a snack of chocolate cheerios as she started to tell me the news. I didn’t know how to react, so I ran into the basement directly to the furthest corner I could find. Lauren tried talking to me, but I wanted to be by myself. One of the hardest things I have ever done was talking to my dad on the phone after finding out. He called to tell me the plans, that he was coming home to get us, and…
It was a beautiful day , I was looking crispy and getting ready to go school and the day went by so fast , we had a lot of homeworks and things to study for tomorrow . My sister was with me before the incident and helping me with my homeworks. My mom was upstairs talking to an old friend .I went to get some water and out of nowhere the earth started shaking and everything was collapsing right in front my eyes and I saw a lot of people crying of help. Luckily for us nothing happened to my family and everything was okay with our house, but when I went outside I saw a lot people dead and injured. It was a tragedy and will stay in my life forever. That’s when I realized not take life for granted.…
It was 2009 and I had been in sixth grade for a couple of months. I was on the phone with one of my friends from school when my mom called through my door for me to come out into the living room. I ignored her and kept talking for a few minutes when she called me out again. I rolled my eyes and told my friend I would call her right back. I walked into the living room and it seemed odd to me that both my sisters and dad were all out there too. I watched my mom take a deep breath with my dad by her side. As she began to speak her voice shook and gloss covered her eyes. “The doctors found a lump in my last mammogram.” she said. “It came back as cancer. I’m going to have to get treatment but I’m going to be okay.” No one else said a word, we all…
A day I will never forget is the day I saw my first car. It was another long day of looking at cars I would never dream about driving. My parents forced…
It was the worst day of my life, and I do not wish to have a day that horrible ever again. I almost died that day, well that might be a bit exaggerated, but it was close to that.…
The most memorable time in my life was my daughter's cleft palate surgery. It was January 4th when my daughter and I had to leave El Paso, TX to take a trip to Austin, TX. It was a long drive for a little baby like her at the time she was only two years old. Early that morning my parents took us to the bus station.The bus was leaving at 6 a.m. in the morning to get to Austin, TX at midnight. My daughter and I felt it was the longest drive ever as the bus was very full and kept stopping. Finally, we arrived to Austin at midnight. I had to walk around for some time until I found a cab to take us to the hotel. I was scared and nervous. I was all alone with my daughter in a city we didn't know. We arrived to the hotel and finally felt safe and some peace. As soon as we walked in the room, I called my family and let them know we were good.…
Endometriosis. I did not know what that word meant and I did not care at the moment. I was sixteen and fearless, but this later would scare me. I saw tears form in my mom's eyes while I sat there wondering what my mom's problem was. I thought this is probably the same as strep throat, something I could take antibiotics for and it would go away. The doctor was explaining the issue and I was slowing realizing this was not just any ordinary sickness. This was something that would stick with me forever. Then the doctor said the one word that I knew could change my life, “infertility.” Everything else faded out, my vision blurred and my mind was on pause while I thought about my dreams of having a big family. Were those…