NNFF Dedication - Carol B Ballek

Home

Founders

Guestbook

Survivors

Dedications

In Loving Memory of Carol B. Ballek

January 25, 2008

This is a little of my mom's story: On a friday morning my mom woke up with a stomach ache, that progressed to vomiting and she decided to go to the local hospital. The doctors admitted her that night with a bowel obstruction that they would treat, and if with no success, would do surgery, on that following Monday. Monday they decided to do the surgery, and having nurses in the family, we had the best surgeon, perform on Tuesday what he called a "simple procedure" to remove old scar tissue. After the surgery all seemed to be going well and they were talking of discharging her home on Friday. On Wednesday she had complaints of pain in her right breast, that they thought was post-surgical pain, but by Thursday night the pain was more increasing, and at 1:00 am on Friday, she spiked a fever. Friday morning at 7 am, I was informed "things weren't right" by the surgeon and at 8 am he called to tell me her vital organs were failing, and to have the immediate family come in immediately. By the time we got to the hospital the surgeon found under her right breast she had a 1/2 dollar sized wound of the strain "Necrotizing Fasciitis." She was rushed into surgery at 10am and her entire left side, from her shoulder to her naval, tissue was removed to the bone. At noon we were told the surgeon would have to perform another debridement, to remove her arm, and that it was quickly traveling up her neck as well, and had a 2 % chance of survival. She was well medicated and passed away by 6:00 that evening. It all happened so fast, I still have a hard time recalling what happened. The hospital nurses, doctors, and staff had little to no information or answers for us, and so after recovering from the initial loss, we did meet with the Hospital Administration encouraging them to become more aware of this quick and destructive bacteria and how to handle patients and families with it.

I wanted to share this not only for my own benefit of grieving, but to also share how fast this disease can destroy, not just my mom's life, but of everyone she knew. It was just a few hours...

Thank you for listening,

Beth Ballek
lenorasmom@gmail.com

I'd love to talk with others, feel free to share my e-mail address, and I'd be interested in helping any way I could to support this site and passing along info to those in need.

Beth Ballek
lenorasmom@gmail.com

November 2008

Return to Dedications