By Maggie DiGiovanni, Mother to Jaime
A precious member of the EAN Team
ECLECTIC – Two months ago, on December 6th, Jaimie DiGiovanni went into Elmore Country Hospital with double viral pneumonia in her lungs. That day she began an odyssey that lasted almost two months. Before her adventure ended, she visited five hospitals from Eclectic to Dothan and back to Montgomery, Alabama.
She met and touched the hearts of many nurses and doctors. These professionals gave into the magic of her personality to make her as happy as possible while working tirelessly to save her fragile life. While in Dothan’s Flowers Hospital, she celebrated her birthday, Christmas and the New Year with people who became her friends. Even Tearra, who ran the gift shop became enamored with this woman, bringing gifts to lift her spirits.
Her doctor made a special trip back to see Jaimie on her birthday, to sing ‘Happy Birthday’ and grin for a picture with her and other health professionals. Nurse John brought her a huge unicorn balloon. Meanwhile people in her town showered her with Get Well cards. Some made the three-hour visit to let her know she was not forgotten. A Facebook friend came from Florida to see the woman of whom she read so much. Church and Senior Center members brought her mail, mail loaded with more and more cards, pictures of friends, and good wishes.
On New Year’s Day, Jaimie asked a nurse for wine. The nurse told her it wasn’t possible to get wine in the hospital.
“New Year’s?”
Understanding that she wanted to welcome in the New Year, all of the nurses gathered in her room with small cups of cranberry juice. Together they toasted in 2022 and turned music on low. They danced around her bed, with her sitting up twisting her upper body back and forth.
I stayed at a nearby hotel, where the staff prayed with me regularly that my daughter might survive and return home. Eventually, four and a half long weeks later, Jaimie’s breathing improved enough to transfer her to a Noland Hospital in Montgomery, AL, much closer to home. Our hopes soared. She worked to improve her breathing and strengthen legs and arms the pneumonia devastated. She won the hearts of the professionals at Noland, too. When they approached her room, smiles led the way.
Two weeks with the Noland staff and she transferred once more, this time to Encompass Rehabilitation Hospital. There she would receive only strengthening exercises that we prayed would make her strong enough to walk and return to a life of helping others. Our dreams shattered less than two days later, when ambulances screamed through the night to the Emergency Room of Baptist South Hospital. Her face was once more covered in a full mask pushing oxygen into air-starved lungs. At midnight a doctor called, urgently needing information regarding their new patient. I could see her the following day.
Her first day, she spent in a tiny ER cubbyhole. Yet, she was so much better off than those crowded into hallways on stretchers or sitting on hard chairs. When I arrived, once more hope rose as she seemed to be breathing easier.
Due to multiple accidents where cars chose mine to hit and a semi crushed the driver’s side of my car while I sat in it, weeks of sitting all day in hospital rooms threatened to crush my back from top to bottom. Seeing all was well, I told Jaimie good-bye and I would see her the next day. As it turned out, a friend went in my stead, giving me a chance to rest before returning to my daughter’s bedside.
Sunday, January 30th, I walked into a new room since Jaimie had been moved from ER to a small, but private room. She seemed different. Having always loved food, I frowned when I saw she had not eaten all of her breakfast. At lunch, all she gained in the use of her hands and arms again seemed to be lagging. And when she barely nibbled a chocolate-chip cookie, I felt uneasy. She complained that her back hurt. In response, after lunch, she was taken to have a CT Scan.
The Nurse Practitioner came running back into the room.
“She coded on the scan table! Do you want her intubated?”
I had been against such a procedure because if Jaimie woke up to it, she would be terrified. But when it came to her dying, I screamed at him to put the tube in. She fought for another six or seven hours before giving up.
At 11 p.m., Jaimie, the beloved Little Witch Who Waited, stopped waiting. She joined her daddy and her favorite uncle in their heavenly home.
If she could add her words here, she would say, ‘Thank you to all the wonderful people who made her last Halloween her very best. Thank you to the seniors who made her feel loved and allowed her to help at the Senior Center. Thank you to the many doctors and nurses who spoiled and fell in love with her at each of her stops along the way. Thank you to so many, many people who offered prayers for her well-being.’
Some folks may think I did not get the right answer to the many prayers that went up. However, had Jaimie survived, she might never have been able to walk again and she might have a tube in her throat forever. Instead, she walked from Baptist South MICU into her Daddy’s arms as she went through heaven’s gate.
The house is quieter although she never made a lot of noise. As though never expecting her back, her television broke and her room looks oddly neat.
If there are prayers left in all of you, please keep the members of her family who are still living in them. They are suffering a great loss. She is enjoying good health, happy reunions, and God’s love.
