To date, Bridget is 14 years old. When she was 6 months old, she was rushed to the ER. Her parents were petrified of their daughters health. Bridget wasn’t breathing upon arrival. They said she had a collapsed lung and pneumonia. They said, “take her home and hold her, give her tylenol and check back with her doctor the next day”.
So her parents took Bridget home. The next morning she was back in the hospital, unresponsive. St. James Hospital life-flighted her to Missoula MT. They said she needed surgery. When they rushed her to surgery, they noticed a lot of her large intestines were dead. They removed a portion of her intestines, and her gallbladder. Surgery complete. Is the worst over?
No, Bridget kept feeling ill, and they didn’t know why. Missoula hospital then life-flighted her to Childrens Hospital in Portland Oregon in hopes that they could figure out why her little body kept shutting down. Portland decided to put her on the ECMO machine. A treatment that uses a pump to circulate blood through an artificial lung back into the bloodstream of a very ill baby.
Still no defining diagnosis. The surgeons went through a vein on her right side of her neck which helps supply blood to her brain.
By the time of her diagnosis the surgeons found that her vein was no good and they had to cauterize it to close it up. Bridget was diagnosed with Cystic Fibrosis.
In 14 years Bridget has had 4 major surgeries. Bridget is becoming accustomed to life-flights and ambulances. She spends most of her school year, holidays and summers being hospitalized. Her life consists of doctor appointments, breathing treatments, medications and hospitalizations. 2018 has proven to be a rough year.
Bridget has her whole life in the palm of her hands just waiting, waiting to be given a chance, to “just breathe” Her family could use some words of strength right now.
