Ava Sakowski

Review of PeaceHealth St. Joseph Medical...

I believe I would be a paralyzed right now if I wo...

I believe I would be a paralyzed right now if I would not have gotten care from UW medicine. I came to the emergency room 6 months ago with the most severe pain I have ever had. It turns out I had a spinal epidural hematoma that was bleeding on my spine and beginning to imitate a stroke. First I couldn't grasp with my right hand and then I couldn't stand on my right foot. All of this happened during my 13 hours in the emergency. They were understaffed and could not get me an MRI until later the next morning. They didn't have an OR available, but still suggested at one point, that I could go home and see if it got better on its own. My cousin happens to be an emergency room doctor and she was called, after I explained to her that I could no longer grasp with my right hand or stand on my right leg, she talked with colleagues she was convinced that I would be paralyzed if they didn't get me into surgery. I was airlifted to UW and they said that when they got to my spine, I no longer had the appropriate "heart beat". They had to remove the blood collected there and restore my spinal functioning. They weren't sure everything would come back since I had been laying like that so long, fortunately for me when they removed the blood, I have not lost any functioning. This of course happened with very little help from PeaceHealth, My family was beside themselves waiting for them to do something. Thank God I have a doctor in the family or I don't know what would happened to me.