An unexpected course of events puts a couple in a total dilemma as a result of which their story almost reached a closure. What happened next was an out of the world experience not only for the couple but for every person who comes across their story. Indeed their story was sensational. Time is not always good and life is not always bad. Hence, this story will take you to a conclusion where you’ll be realizing how important it is to live life to the fullest and never give up!
Ryan Finley, a plumbing contractor, and Jill Finley, a loan underwriter recently got married and were living a regular life in Jones, Oklahoma. Happiness simply meant each other's company and peace meant their home. The couple started their married life recently and they were not giving each other any hard times. However, they were not aware that they are soon going to face the biggest obstacle of their lives.
Ryan and Jill were having a great time together and weekends were their fun time. Usually, they were relaxing at the weekends, with their family and friends. Early mornings when Ryan prefers to read the newspaper, he lets Jill sleep for a bit longer. While Ryan comfortably lay on his couch, Jill gets busy talking with the neighbors and family. However, a just another Sunday morning in 2007 wasn't like their past weekends at all.
The unfortunate incident took place soon after both completed 4 years of their marriage and were still happily following their old routines. That Sunday morning, Ryan was silently reading his newspaper on his lounge chair without waking up his wife who was asleep. That was not an ordinary day and hence the couple's action may differ from their regular day, which actually happened.
Ryan, unlike the rest of the mornings over the years, felt a strange eagerness to wake up his wife. As soon as he entered the house he walked towards the bedroom to wake Jill up. Even Ryan himself was aware that this behavior is opposite to his regular self but he wanted to see Jill awake and fine for unexplained reasons. What was next to happen, will change Ryan forever.
“I can’t tell you why, but I just felt that I wanted to wake her up that day," told Ryan, and when he tried to wake Jill, for a second, he thought she is not willing to wake up but quick enough he understood that she was not responding to him at all. Despite many attempts, shaking her and shouting as loud as he can, all seemed like a waste as she didn't wake up that morning. This was enough to freak out Ryan who immediately ran for his phone.
This situation was nothing less of a nightmare, which no one can imagine to happen to their loved ones. While Ryan was in one such situation he was aware that he has to be really fast in his next move. Every second he was fighting his own battle with panic which was trying to take over Ryan's conscious self.
On the Sunday morning of May 26, 2007, Ryan rushed to make a call to 911 when he realized the devastating fact that his wife wasn't breathing at all. He was close to losing his own senses but he stood strong to save his wife's life. He knew it might take some time for the ambulance to arrive and couldn't just sit there and wait anymore. Throughout the distressing situation, Ryan was aware that he has to act now!
Ryan moved Jill from their bed to the floor where he can do the CPR (Cardiopulmonary resuscitation) which should be performed in emergency cases to restore blood circulation and breathing of a person. Ryan didn't have any clue about what's happening to his wife and yet he wanted to do all he could to save her. He merely knew anything about first aid yet he performed CPR by himself on the basis of the little knowledge he had from a decade's old CPR course.
“It felt like forever, it felt like hours," explained Ryan recalling the time he was waiting for the ambulance to reach. While Ryan was making all the attempts to save his beloved wife the help was on its way and within 15 minutes of Ryan's call, they reached the couple's home. The paramedics were here and Ryan was finally hoping that Jill will get back to senses soon.
The Emergency Response team sent Ryan outside the room and while he was praying for Jill to get well, the EMTs were checking her. Ryan remembers those moments when he was waiting as "I could actually hear the machine going. A thump and then the second thump. I heard Jill coming back down and hitting the wood floor.” Jill was even given chest concussions artificially.
The EMT was sure they have to hurry in taking Jill to the hospital for further medical treatment. She was still completely unconscious when they took her in the ambulance and instantly rushed to the Oklahoma Heart Hospital where they could provide Jill the immediate additional care she needed at that time while Ryan was left behind.
Ryan wasn't briefed about anything so far and he too followed the ambulance in his car and reached the hospital where Jill was taken directly to the ER. She was kept on the respirator and doctors took further action to save her life, however, with time passing it was getting more difficult. Everything was happening so quickly that Ryan couldn't even understand what was going on, he was just praying for everything to become normal.
Ryan told it took around 25 minutes for the doctors to stabilize Jill in such a way that they can further help her with medication or anything at all as they knew proceeding in the traumatic state might risk her life. All Ryan remembered Jill sleeping last night with him as usual, he couldn't make out what happened to her that caused this.
With the doctors' team efforts finally, Jill started breathing and her heart was beating too. Everyone took a breath of relief, sadly, this wasn't all. When Ryan heard the news and was eager to see his love again, the doctors soon noticed something strange that was the biggest shock for Ryan and the situation seemed more complicated when he wasn't explained what happened to her.
At the hospital, Ryan was told by the doctors that when asleep Jill had cardiac arrest and as she stopped breathing for almost 5 minutes, doctors had to move her to the “chill suit” and initiated clinical hypothermia to decrease the chances of brain damage. All the possible attempts were being made to keep Jill stable but fate couldn't be controlled by people.
According to Dr. Michael Schoeffler who was looking after Jill's condition, "there [are] studies that have shown that it helps protect the brain in hopes that she will have a recovery." Therefore she was kept covered with cooling pads and was taken care with circulated cold water for complete 24 hours which resulted in lowering her body temperature to 90 degrees. Things went wrong when doctors tried to warm her up.
After 24 hours, doctors were now supposed to increase Jill's body temperature. Doctors were expecting that she would wake up while this procedure like many other patients' cases. But what happened was completely opposite of their expectations as the reports showed that there was very little brain activity observed after the tests.
Ryan recalls doctor informing him about Jill's current state, that she was in a coma and this was a shock to him. He didn't want to leave her side nor he wanted to give up on her rather he wanted her to get up soon and talk to him like before. The only issue was Ryan and the doctors had no way to bring her out of the coma. So was this it? Not at all.
Friends and relatives had their own point of view about Ryan not resting enough while all he wanted was to be with Jill.No matter what anyone said Ryan wasn't ready to give up. He knew if he was the one bedridden, she too would have done the same for him. But the reality was he couldn't keep her on the bed for the rest of her life.
As days were passing, Ryan was staying by Jill's side day and night. He used to read verses from the Bible to his beloved most of the times. He knew she can wake up anytime and he didn't want her to wake up finding herself alone in that room. He usually used to lay next to her on the bed. The doctors didn't have much to say and never did they mention but the truth was with every other day, the chances of her survival were rapidly declining.
According to the doctors, the situation was hopeless but they didn't say it clearly. All they had to offer was a probability. Ryan recalled, “It was grim, I’ll put it that way. Everything they told me was grim.” There was just one percent possibility for Jill's complete recovery.
Ryan wasn't ready to give up on his beautiful wife but he was not blindfolded to the bitter reality that Jill too is suffering and she never will wish to live her life like this on the bed. His heart wasn't ready to accept it as an end of their married life.
Ryan's heart was full of emotions and he lost his inner peace completely. While doctors, family, and friends all had their different piece of advice, Ryan's fight was going on within himself. He started praying most of his time and kept a diary to pour out his pain silently. Maybe the rough times were about to be over soon.
“Every morning I’d wake up and I’d realize, this isn’t a dream. The doctors told me that there were never any signs that she was coming back. There wasn’t,” Ryan mentioned in his diary. With the nightmare he was going through, Ryan never knew what more was to come right after it.
As two weeks passed and there was no improvement seen in Jill's health, her parents were now thinking of the alternative. Which Ryan wasn't unaware of but he just didn't want to let Jill go. The tragedy was about her being out of the coma and yet paralyzed or any other consequences that she might have to face for the rest of her life. All the circumstances forced Ryan into a dilemma.
It was time for Ryan to make a decision if he wants Jill to live a life in bed or to just let her go by taking her off the life support. “Today could be the worst day of life. I essentially have to decide whether or not Jill will live or not. My soul mate. My everything,” Ryan penned in his diary.
Ryan at this moment recalled the memory of the time when his aunt was admitted to the hospital on a life support. Ryan used to share a very close bond with his aunt and seeing all that Jill once said to him, “I would never want to live that way.” Although Ryan was never ready for anything like that, he was now being forced by everyone to make a decision.
After Jill's parents' suggestion, Ryan reached a conclusion of not letting Jill stay bedridden for the rest of her life and hence with a heavy heart he chose to get her life support removed. He had to get the court order approved to disconnect the feeding tubes from Jill's body. The hardest decision was made but the result was a miracle.
Ryan recalls, “You don’t think when you’re 31 years old that you will have to be doing this with your wife that’s 32.” Ryan, the 31-year-old was now feeling shattered as the doctors explained him about the "last rally" which meant the last actions or words coming out of the patient's mouth once the life support is moved.
On June 9, 2007, after everyone bid their goodbyes to Jill, she was taken off the life support. “Her whole upper torso would just kind of shift a little bit. And then the mumbling would start. When that started, I left the room. I physically got sick,” Ryan said. A few hours after leaving the room, nurses requested him to hurry to Jill's room.
Ryan was sure that he can't see his wife dying and now the nurses were calling to see her dead. It was close to 11 p.m., ie, 5 hours after removing Jill from the life support. When he entered the room, she was mumbling and Ryan assumed it to be the "last rally". Ryan recalls, “I thought that was it, that was the last rally.”
Ryan remembers that she was trying hard to say something and wasn't just mumbling. She was also trying to move which was strange and Ryan understood that something was not normal. Ryan was confused, was it just a reflex of her body? Or she was getting better? How was she getting better without life support?
“Get me out of here,” Jill said and added further demands, “Take me to Ted’s and take me to the Melting Pot,” she named her favorite Mexican restaurants. On the basis of the doctor's advice to not expect anything Ryan asked more questions to check that it's not just a reflex. Ryan's questions from Jill made everyone look at the couple for a moment with nervousness.
“She knew our dog’s name, our cat’s name, our phone number. She knew our address immediately,” Ryan recalled. It was so strange for him that when he was expecting her to wake up she was lying there, now when he had made up his mind that she'll be gone Jill was back. His happiness couldn't be expressed in words.
“It was – I can’t imagine a feeling better than what I felt right then. I kind of had to take a double-take, and that went on for about 24 hours. I really couldn’t believe it was happening. The two or three days prior I was preparing for the worst and the best happened. It was just like living in a dream for a day – then it hit me, ‘She’s back, dummy,’” said Ryan. But how did this happen? Was it something doctors can explain or simply a miracle?
Jill stood up within 6 days and it was nothing less than incredible. Everyone including their family, doctors, friends, and people who knew their story were completely mesmerized when within a week this young lady was back on her feet and was discharged from the hospital. There were some weird facts about her coma too.
“All the doctors say I’m not textbook material. I do remember the big shower they wheeled me into every day. Other than that, I don’t remember anything,” Jill explained. Normally it is said that a person can hear everything in the coma but her case was different like many others. But what about Ryan giving up on her and letting her go? Did she find it fair enough?
After recovering from her coma, Jill wasn't dishearted knowing about Ryan's decision of taking her off the life support instead she said, “I would not have wanted to live like that. And so he did the right thing, he did. Because they basically told him that I was going to be a vegetable. I was going to be laying there in bed, you know, wearing diapers for the rest of my life and that’s just not me.” However, the doctors' words are more like a confusion.
“I honestly do believe that God answered the prayers. We had so many people praying for me – just tons of different churches, and family and friends,” said Jill who gave all the credits of her recovery to God and Ryan and her loved ones. Doctors who closely studied her medical condition had something else to say.
Though she had all the memories of her life, Jill forgot the simple tasks like brushing her teeth, tying her shoes and cooking. But the couple started their life as a newly married again. As the graceful Jill explained, “Pretty much, I am normal. One of our friends, [said], ‘I’m so jealous. You guys are like newlyweds.’”
Jill's heart stopped working when she was asleep which resulted in the coma. Doctor's don't have an exact explanation for her recovery. Jill has to go to the therapist for some time. Doctors themselves find it nothing less of a miraculous occurring.
“There’s still not a night that goes by that I don’t wake up. I’ll usually kick her and if she kicks me back, I know we’re OK,” shares the couple their funny yet heartwarming style of checking on to each other if they are doing fine every night.
“It’s brought life to a whole new perspective, we look at each day so much differently now. We just spend every minute that we can together — going to the grocery store now, we go together, go everywhere together,” said the couple about the astonishing improvement in their relationship as they value each and every moment spend together.
They are living their lives to the fullest now with all the fun and excitement and the most important thing is their togetherness. People have loved them more since this incident and the couple has now become like a local celebrity.
Ryan Finley was nominated for the Oklahoma Heart Hero Award, presented by the Oklahoma Heart Hospital for his efforts of using CPR. The most important thing for Ryan is that he took his beloved to both the restaurants which she mentioned after waking up from the coma.