"HELP!", my wife screamed, as I was seizing out of control.
I had gone into a grand mall seizure that caused my whole body to flop around helplessly. It is typical of stroke victims to have seizures because of swelling of the brain. The swelling is caused from the blood that is released into the brain cavity from a broken vessel.
Six minutes later I was still seizing, causing my heart rate to exceed an amazing 250 beats a minute. Due to the size of the seizure, I was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit. My heart stopped for two minutes because of the seizure.
I remember screaming but my lips would not move. Then it got dark and hot, like nothing I had experienced before. During this time I felt a peaceful presence with me. I was no longer afraid of dying, but still fearful of leaving my wife and child. After all, my son was less than two months old.
When I was brought back I shouted, "I don’t want to die!" Within the next fifteen hours I had five more grand mall seizures, each one lasting about six minutes.
I looked up at my wife and whispered, "It is not my time to go, so stop worrying. I’m going to fight this for you and my baby boy."
The neurosurgeon wanted to drill a whole in my head to relieve the pressure from the brain, however, I was too weak from the seizures. The neurologist told my family that he had never seen someone have so many huge seizures and live.
The doctor then called my family together and stated "If you want anyone to see Jan, you better call them now. We do not expect him to make it through the night. Jan’s heart cannot take another seizure and his brain is swelling from the stroke. He has been induced into a coma. I’m sorry, but there is nothing more that we can do."
My wife and father called the whole family to come and pray. My father immediately called different churches in Portland and asked for their prayers. During this time there was a team of doctors working on finding out why this happened to me. However, there was not a diagnosis to be found.
My Uncle was in Grand Ronde, calling everyone he knew and asking for prayers. He sweat lodged and came to the hospital. I remained in a coma during this time. My Uncle came into the room at ICU, bringing an Eagle Feather. He laid the feather down on my bed beside me.
The hematologist saw Uncle and asked if I had any Indian blood. My Uncle told him that I was a Grand Ronde Tribal Member. The doctor immediately called for another blood test. When I came out of the coma, my family was standing around me. It was then that the doctors finally had an answer to my condition.
It was my Uncle, who looks very traditional, that helped them find the reason for my stroke. The blood test had shown that I was positive for Protein Enzyme C Deficiency. Also, I had made it past the swelling of my brain. It looked like all the prayers had been answered.
I was moved back into the neurological ward for further treatment and monitoring. A form of Heparin, a potent blood thinner, was being applied to treat my condition. Other than being paralyzed on the left side, it looked like I would be all right.
Then I started coughing up a lot of blood. My right leg had swelled up so large that I could not lift it off the bed. They took another picture of my brain and it showed something horrifying. The main blood vessel that runs down the center of my brain was full of blood clots.
The test came back and showed that my body was quickly filling up with blood clots. The clots had hit my lungs and caused bleeding, it was as if I was drowning in my own blood. After an ultrasound was performed, it showed my right leg was also full of blood clots. The leg was so bad, that a large number of the blood vessels were permanently destroyed.
I passed a clot through my heart, almost causing it to stop. I had titanium implant screens surgically placed in my main blood vessels coming from my lower body. This all happened within a short time, it was a nightmare come true. I was dying and could feel it.
The doctor was talking to my father out in the hall. I heard my dad break out in tears, crying out "No God, no!" I asked if I could see the doctor that was heading up the team on my treatment. Before the doctor came in, my father walked in and sat down. He was as white as a ghost and had a forced smile on his face. Then the doctor came into the room.
I said, "Tell me the truth, I have a right to know. Am I going to die?"
Right then my wife arrived; she was at the coast seeing our son. The doctor just looked at me.
I screamed, "This isn’t fair! One day you tell me that everything is o.k. and the next I am going to die. So tell me, am I going to die?"
A tear started rolling down the face of the doctor as he said, "Chances are that you have 24 to72 hours to live. If you make it past that, your chances will get better every day."
The reason for this was because I had so many blood clots, that they had to give me an excessive amount of blood thinner. This was dangerous because my stroke had been so recent. I could bleed to death or stroke again.
Then the doctor turned to my wife and quietly told her to pray, because that was all that was left to do. Once again my family came and prayed for me, along with many people from local churches.
Chips Tom, a Tribal Council Member and Bonnie, his wife, came to see me. Chips looked down at me and said with a firm voice, "You’ll be alright." Bonnie touched my hand, I could actually feel her compassion. I had not met either of them before, but they came to see me because I am a Tribal Member.
I lay completely still in that hospital bed for the next three days, not knowing from minute to minute if I was going to live or die. A week went by and it looked like I was going to make it. I no longer cared about being paralyzed, I was just grateful to be alive. I started seeing things a lot differently from before.
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