But Dianna Cillessen is thankful she stuck around long enough to hear the definition. It means that when surgeons cut into her skin on a September day when she was as good as dead, no blood came out.
There was none left. The Arvada mom lost her entire volume of blood minutes after she gave birth to bouncing baby Beau. Five-year-old James crammed into the same easy chair to show his little brother an inch-high ninja fighter. Doctors see it once in 80, births. Four out of five mothers who get it die from the catastrophic results. The worst moment, he said, was looking up from the operating table to see a priest through the double-door windows, waiting to give last rites.
An emergency hysterectomy and frantic suturing of bleeding points — coupled with the reverse- flood of incoming units — finally stabilized Cillessen, Doctors expected her to wake up damaged.
Loss of blood and oxygen in the brain leaves many women with the condition severely impaired. Yet Cillessen regained consciousness a few hours later with her niece holding her hand, and immediately demanded to hold blissfully oblivious Beau. Twelve hours after losing all her blood, she was sitting up and eating dinner with stunned friends. Jennifer Freeman. Cillessen and her husband said they think often of the 41 individual blood donors whose vital gifts rebuilt her body and soul that morning.
Doctors such as Freeman spend Thanksgiving on call at Lutheran and hospitals across the metro area. Michael Booth: , mbooth denverpost. By Michael Booth mbooth denverpost. More in News.
