There were no warning signs when Steven Pellettiere-Swapp found his mother Lyndee laying unconscious. “Everything can be taken away. You can wake up one day and everything is fine, and then your life is a mess,” he told CBS 5 News.
After calling 911, Steven traveled to the hospital with his 45-year-old mother where she spent the next 12 days in a coma. Doctors tried everything, but Lyndee remained unconscious. To make things even more difficult, her family was aware that Lyndee was an organ donor and did not want to remain in a vegetative state. Together, her loved ones agreed to make the most painful decision of their lives and take Lydnee off life support.
After the doctors turned off the machines, her family took turns sitting by her side and speaking with her. Lyndee’s husband leaned in and whispered in her ear “I need you to fight.” They had no idea that she was not only listening, she was fighting.
Although she was unable to respond, Lyndee had been aware of everything that was happening around her. As the doctors described to her family what they would see and hear as she died, Lyndee desperately pushed to make contact. She described the horrific experience in an interview with CBS,
I remember people talking to me. I remember when people came to visit, my niece reading to me. I remember a doctor opening my eyes, messing with me, and telling my family I was not reacting.
It was very agitating. I couldn’t move. I couldn’t talk, couldn’t respond. I could just hear everybody having conversations around me and about me.
In my head it was very clear what I was saying, but it wasn’t to them. I was finally able to get out ‘I’m a fighter,’ which is what my husband was whispering in my ear.”
Lyndee leaves a powerful message for anyone facing a similar situation. “Just because you’re not conscious doesn’t mean you can’t hear. You should talk to your loved ones if somebody is in that situation. They hear you.”
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