The day ‘my life changed forever’

This story contains excerpts from “So I Won’t Forget,” by Cindy Lipps, D.V.M. She began her veterinary practice at Archer Road Animal Hospital in Baytown in 1984.

“My youngest daughter married in October 2016. In 2017, our church offered a Dave Ramsey study on saving and investing for retirement, and how to stay out of debt. I signed the newlyweds up for it. I signed up for it, too, to give them moral support.

“During the video, Dave Ramsey talked about the importance of having a current will. It got me thinking. My husband and I had wills, but they were drawn up when our kids were babies. My husband’s brother was the executor of the estate. Our kids were now out of college. My husband’s brother was dead.

“I went home and told my husband that I thought we needed to update our wills. He agreed. Our CPA directed us to talk to an attorney she liked in Houston. He sat us down in a room together. We were asked to discuss, ‘Do you want to be buried or cremated? How far do you want the doctors to go with your care if you are hospitalized?’ These were topics we never discussed. We were too busy talking about colleges, boyfriends and weddings. After we talked, the attorney drew up new wills, directives to physicians, and powers of attorney. My husband transferred this onto a thumb drive for easy access.

“That was taken care of. I returned to being in charge. I owned my own veterinary practice. I was the one my employees came to when they were having teenager problems or when they were going through a divorce. I held clients’ hands when I had to tell them that the dog or cat they had for over 10 years had a terminal disease. Everyone depended on me.

Morning to remember

“My life changed forever on July 12, 2019. It was a Friday. It was my day off. Usually on Friday mornings, I would get up early, drive out to my barn, feed and clean, then drive to Conroe 1 1/2 hours away, where I had a horse in training. I would spend the morning riding, then groom my horse before driving back to Baytown to fix dinner.

“But this morning my husband said that I woke him up at 4. I told him that I did not feel well and needed to go to the hospital. He sat up in bed, looked at me, then turned to call 911. The 911 operator dispatched an ambulance and a fire truck to our house.

“As my husband was still on the phone with the dispatcher, he looked back to see me collapse across the bed. ‘I think my wife just died!’ he said. He didn’t know it at the time, but the dispatcher knew me. She used to come into my office with her father when she was a child, with their dog to be treated. She grew very stern with my husband.

“She told him to lay the phone down on the bed, do not hang it up. Walk out to the front yard and wave at the fire truck driver so that he would not pass up our house. My husband did exactly as he was told, then came back inside.

“Within seconds, two paramedics charged into our house. They plunged a long needle into my chest, into my heart, and pumped it with epinephrine, and did CPR until one of them declared, ‘I have a heart beat. Let’s transport.’ They told my husband that they were transporting me to the large local hospital in Baytown. They loaded me into a waiting ambulance and drove away.

“The last thing that my husband did before leaving our house was put the thumb drive — with the legal documentation that the attorney had prepared for us the year before — into his pocket.

Professionals take charge

“At the hospital at 5 that morning was a blessing in disguise. A Baytown cardiologist just happened to be in the emergency room when the ambulance arrived with me. At the time, the ER doctor and paramedics thought that I had suffered a heart attack.

“The cardiologist looked at the preliminary lab work that the ER doctor had run. ‘This does not look like a heart attack,’ he said. ‘I would look at her brain.’ The ER doctor scanned my brain, and that’s when he found it. I had a ruptured brain aneurysm.

“My chance of survival was less than 10%. The ER doctor got permission from my husband to Life Flight me to a large major medical facility in Houston for neurosurgery.

“A neurosurgeon successfully coiled my bleeding aneurysm. Over the next week, the chief neurosurgeon joined him as they battled brain swelling and hydrocephalus. No one knew for sure if I would have permanent brain injuries, or if I would even live. They battled on.

The journey back

“My two daughters joined my husband as he waited daily in the neurosurgical unit. My oldest daughter became the comforter. My youngest daughter took charge of communicating with the doctors and nurses as the family spokesperson. Several of their work colleagues and friends arranged for meals to be brought up to the hospital for them.

“A hospital attendant asked my husband if he had legal power of attorney, and did I have a directive to physicians. BOOM! He handed her the thumb drive.

“I spent the next three months in several different medical facilities, learning how to walk, talk, and feed myself again. My youngest daughter bought a communication board for me so that I could communicate with my family. I had been placed on a ventilator and could not talk. I kept that board to remind me of my progress.

“I finally came home mid-October 2019.

Fog begins to lift

“My first memories of my ordeal didn’t occur for almost six weeks after my aneurysm rupture in the third facility that I was in, the TIRR unit at Memorial Hermann Hospital in Houston.

“I remember a sign in my room that said this was the room that Gabby Giffords, former member of the U.S. House of Representatives, occupied after an assassination attempt that left her with a severe brain injury.

“I remember that they brought in a therapy dog to help in my recovery. My family took a picture of the dog lying in bed with me. I remember the day that I was transferred to a transitional rehabilitation facility in a nearby town. TIRR said that I had to leave that day because they already had a patient needing my room. My husband drove me to the next facility during the onslaught of Tropical Storm Imelda. I remember thinking that it was nighttime because it was so dark outside.

“I prayed that God would help us arrive safely in the storm. I also thanked God that this is the man that I married. He continued to fight for me and take care of me. I felt totally helpless to be able to help my husband should we have a problem. I think now that this must be how an animal feels riding in the car, totally at the mercy of its owner.

Simple existence

“When my husband took me to the transitional rehabilitation facility, I was just like an animal. I just accepted everything. I didn’t ask any questions. I never asked about my children, my sisters, my other family, my clinic, my horses or my pets. I simply was there.

“The first day at the center, a patient came up to me. He was from the Virgin Islands. I remember he said, ‘Look at me. Look at me. When I got here, I couldn’t walk. I couldn’t talk. But look at me now. It has been five years since I was able to walk. Do what they tell you, and work hard. You will get better, too. You’ll see.’

“We met with a psychologist once or twice a week. I remember one of my first sessions with him, he said, ‘I don’t think anyone ever told you what happened to you.’ He tossed my medical file to me to read. It was the first time that I began to understand what had happened to me.

“The first few days, the staff had me stay in a wheelchair until they could assess my condition. I had suffered some paralysis on the right side of my body. The doctors had placed a gastrostomy tube to feed me while I was still at the first hospital in Houston because I was having trouble swallowing. I had lost almost 20 pounds.

“I was totally dependent on my caregivers. It was my ‘road to Damascus’ moment. The Lord granted me another chance at life. We are all here to live for Him.

True friend

“A year after I got out of the hospital for the ruptured aneurysm, I was hospitalized again because I was having trouble walking. I was taken by ambulance from our local hospital in Baytown to the large major medical center in Houston where my neurosurgery was done. They kept me for four days. They ran a battery of lab tests on me, X-rays, CAT scans, checked my ventriculoperitoneal shunt, and did viral testing on me. They finally decided that all I had was low blood pressure.

“My bill for four days was over $600,000. My insurance company decided that they were no longer going to pay my hospital bills because they had already paid over $1 million toward my care. Because I’d had their policy for 40 years, I was grandfathered in. They claimed I was exempt from the Affordable Care Act that prohibits lifetime or annual limits on health care coverage. They were no longer responsible. I no longer had insurance. It would be a year before Medicare coverage would kick in. My husband and younger daughter talked to the hospital, and they reduced my bill to $400,000.

“My husband sent the hospital a small payment until our CPA could figure out the best way to pay the bill. A few weeks later, the check was returned with a statement that my balance had been resolved.

“I called my friend J.R., who I had taught Sunday school with for years. J.R. buried several of my old horses that I had to put down. He and his wife came to see me when I was at the transitional rehabilitation facility. I taught one of their children in Sunday school. Later, their son performed my daughter’s wedding ceremony after he became a minister.

“‘J.R.,’ I said, ‘I don’t understand this. They say my balance has been resolved.’ ‘Don’t worry about it,’ he said. ‘You’ve paid them enough already!’

Today’s reality

“I can no longer perform surgeries, ride a horse, or drive busy roads. I still own my veterinary practice. All my employees stayed that first year. My relief veterinarian quit her other job to run my office. My previous relief veterinarian from nine years ago came and worked during the time my current relief vet was giving her notice to her other employer. Even my sister and my niece, both veterinarians, worked during those first two weeks. Everyone took care of me.

“Almost every day now I walk five miles and do 1 1/2 hours of brain exercises. I am also doing online continuing education for veterinary medicine to maintain my license to practice.

“My life has been changed forever. It has given me a new perspective about what is important. I try to show more compassion and understanding for others. I thank God for the many blessings that I have. Each day and each person matters, and should not be taken for granted.”

Cindy wants people to know that a brain aneurysm is an inheritable condition that can be addressed before it ruptures. The rupture causes bleeding in the brain, sometimes known as a hemorrhagic stroke. She stresses that anyone closely related to a person who had a ruptured aneurysm or hemorrhagic stroke, or who died suddenly of unknown causes, should be evaluated by a medical professional.