Samantha passed away on Jan. 27, 2003 at the young age of 12. On Jan. 23, she was rushed to Harborview Hosp. by helicopter from her school at 9:30 am. While she was in P.E. she was complaining of a headache, her friends asked her if they should get the teacher. But she said, "no, I'll be alright" because Samantha never wanted to trouble anyone. Her friends got the teacher anyway, he asked Sam if she wanted to go to the school nurse. Once again, she said "no, I'll be ok." It was seconds after that she went in to a seizure state. They said her face got real red and she was saying how her head hurt so bad, and that was it. When I got to the hospital, they thought Sami might have menigitis. Oh how I wish. I got to see her before her ct scan, she looked so helpless. It was and still is like a bad dream. After her ct scan, they told me she had abnormal blood vessels in her brain, one had broke and caused a large blood clot. They needed to go in and remove it. They weren't sure if she would make it through the surgery or not.
So we waited and waited for hours. Finally that evening, a Dr. came and told me Sami's surgery went real well and they were taking her up to Ped. ICU, for me to go up there and we would be waking her up. I can't tell you how relieved I was, everyone was soooooo happy. But that wasn't the story, when we got up stairs, and I finally got to see her. It was so horrible. I asked the nurse if we could wake her up, she called the Dr. and he told me Sami was in very critical condition, and in a very deep coma, and every hour they were just trying to keep her alive. I was in shock, I thought, no way, here my daughter is in the best hosp. possible, people are in critical condition everyday and come out of it. I was sure she would be OK. But by Friday and Sat. her brain would not quit swelling, they could only give her so much medicine, and soon they wouldn't be able to give her anymore. On Mon. I had to take her breathing machine off her, they said the only part of her brain working was her breathing. I'll remember that day as if it were yesterday for the rest of my life. We took her off the machine at 2:30, I climbed in bed with her and held her until she took her last breath at 9:30pm. All her family and close friends got to say good bye. It was and forever will be the saddest day of my life. Nobody ever dreams in there wildest dreams they would have to ask there child to please let go, please go on up to heaven. That it was ok to stop fighting, and ok to go. I will never ever understand why this happened. I don't feel God has taken Sami from me, I feel life itself has taken her. I tried to have the most beautiful memorial service for her. I knew it would be the last thing I could do for her. Over 500 people came and it was so beautiful. I had pictures of her blown up to giant size all over the church. We hung all the posters that her school had made for her (not all of them, there were so many), it was a very beautiful service. Samantha will be in my heart everyday until I die, and when that day comes we will be together again. She was truely my Angel on earth, and she now is my Angel in Heaven. I Love You Samantha, more than infinity.
Thank you for visiting Sami's web site.
Love Gina
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