Mar 14, 2020

OUR MIRACLE OF 2020

Dedicated to my Bonus Dad, the strongest man I know, Peter William Beans and to my dear Mother, the strongest woman in my life, Janice Elaine Beans.

Based on a true story that miracles really do happen, as long as you believe and never give up hope.

As we all know, Valentine’s Day is a day to celebrate love with the souls you love the most. The morning of Friday, February 14, 2020 was just that. A beautiful morning in Arizona where the sun was shining on the mountains, hugs and kisses were exchanged, serving as a reminder of just how blessed we truly are. Surrounded by the winter beauty with a high of 75 degrees in the forecast, we had all intentions to celebrate another glorious day of life and our blessings. However, little did I know, this would be the day my biggest fear became my reality and our world turned upside down in a matter of seconds.

I was traveling home from Washington, D.C. where I had a work meeting for the week, and couldn’t wait to get home to squeeze my babies. I left D.C. at 7am Eastern time and landed at 9:45am Mountain time. I picked up a few gifts from the gift shops in D.C. for my loves. I texted my husband that morning at 4:14am Mountain time wishing my loves a Happy Valentine’s Day and that I was headed home to them. Told them I loved them with all my heart and would see them all very soon.

My bonus dad and mom, PB&J (Peter Beans and Janice) woke that morning and had their annual Valentine’s Day celebration, which was really no different from any other day, to be honest. Another day filled with love, cards, flowers, and dove dark chocolates. This was their beautiful norm. The love PB&J share is very deep and so genuine. Their love radiates into the world, and as my mother always said, “There is no J without PB. They are perfectly imperfect together, “Two peas in a pod”, as Beans says. People talk about the aura that surrounds them, and anyone that has crossed their path feels this beautiful feeling.

Due to me being on work travel, my husband Josh, coordinated with my mom to take our children to school on Thursday of that week, so he could go into work at his normal time. She texted him saying she was able to take the kids to school on Friday also, if he needed her to. So, that was the plan. Normally when my mom, GJ (Grandma Janice) takes the kids to school, GranPa Pete / Beans comes too, because he usually drives the “school bus” – our van. Driving the bus is very fun for GJ and Beans as they sing songs with the kids and talk about the upcoming day.

That morning, PB & J had roofers coming to their house at 8:30am for simple repairs. Beans was not going to join the bus this am as he was going to stay home and wait for the roofers to arrive. After some discussion, mom and Beans decided he would join them after he finished making mom’s lunch, as he does every day by the way, and then would join her at our home to get the kids ready for school. He decided he wanted to see the kids off to school and would be home in time for the roofers. “Pete” as Kingsley says, was getting him dressed for school in the living room and had time for a few giggles, before they were off.

They all headed out to the van in the garage. Our daughters Liberty and Lucky were helping Kingsley get buckled into his car seat, when they heard GJ screaming HELP. The kids witnessed GranPa Beans fall to the ground. Mom was standing right next to him and tried to break his fall to the cement as he landed and fell into a bunch of boxes that we had on the inside of the garage.

My powerhouse mother came to his rescue. His body was limp and lifeless. Their life together flashed before her eyes, realizing the man she had fallen in love with 14 years ago, was turning blue and had no pulse. She was in fight-or-flight mode at this time, and says “God intervened in that very moment.” She knew he was in major trouble and grabbed her phone from her purse and dialed 911. She grabbed Peter, a 225 lb. man, by the waist of his blue jeans, with all her might and unfolded his body to see him vomiting, turning blue and gray. His head was wedged under the van, but time was not on their side. My mom, nurse of 37 years, immediately initiated CPR for approximately 6 minutes and according to our daughters, was screaming, “Stay with me Beans. Don’t you give up on me now!”

During this time, the children knew Beans’ life was on the line. Kingsley, just two years old kept repeating, “Pete fall. Where is Pete?” They were terrified to say the least. Lucky, our brave just turned 7-year-old daughter got out of the van and ran into her room and grabbed her iPad. She phoned her dad on FaceTime. Josh answered and instantly knew something was wrong. According to Josh, she said Beans is not breathing and GJ is working on him. All Josh could hear was mom screaming and knew something horrific was happening. Josh told the girls to get Kingsley out of the van and go inside to their bedroom and that he would be home in a few minutes. Mom continued giving CPR for approximately 6 minutes, which felt like a lifetime to her. A bicyclist also named Peter, happened to riding by on his bike during this time, stopped and asked how he could help. She asked if he knew how to do CPR and he didn’t. So he just stayed by her side for moral support until help arrived. She continued to administer CPR until the paramedics arrived. Upon the arrival of the fire department, they pulled Beans from the garage to the driveway, where they cut off all his clothes, took over CPR, shocked him twice, and pumped him up full of all kinds of medicine to include atropine, epinephrine, and lidocaine.

Beans was experiencing no heart pain or any symptoms leading up to the moment when his heart decided to stop. He had routinely seen doctors to include his cardiologist, just to tell him that he is a healthy, very active 66 year old. During this time, a Grandmother of a neighbor stopped here and came inside without hesitation to help with the children until Josh arrived. A woman bystander kept praying all day that the man she witnessed getting CPR, would somehow come out of all of this. The paramedics got Beans into the ambulance and continued working to revive his sweetest heart on the way to Chandler Regional Medical Hospital.

Upon arrival at the hospital, mom threw her keys to some random citizen and asked him to valet her car. This gentleman saw the fear and panic in her and took her keys to valet without question. My sisters, Nicki and Dani (daughters of Beans) arrived at the same time as my mom, and they were escorted to the “cry room” in the hospital and they knew exactly what that meant. They fell to their knees, crying, and terrified that they were about to lose their beloved Husband and Father. Dr. Karen Garby, a best friend of my mother, had made her way to my mom’s side. They had shocked Beans a total of 6 times at this point, trying to get his heart to beat again. By now he was down for 49 minutes, when the door suddenly opened to the room they were sequestered, and a physician told them “We have a pulse”! They initially thought he had suffered myocardial infarction and quickly got him prepped and ready for a heart catheterization to see if he suffered a heart attack. The girls were all able to kiss him before he went back and tell him how much he is loved, although he laid their completely unconscious on life support, cold and stiff, not alert to what was happening. Their hearts were completely shattered to pieces, not knowing if he was going to make it through this.

During all of this, my plane was in route back home to Phoenix. I landed to the worst news of my life, which has been my biggest fear when traveling away from my family for work these past 10 years. My phone wouldn’t stop alerting me that I had a number of text messages, voicemails, emails, and FB messages that my bonus dad had a medical emergency and I needed to get to the hospital as quickly as possible. MY GOD. I had a full blown panic attack. My heart was racing in panic and fear that I was about to lose my bonus dad, and I was the only one not there because I was traveling for work! I was terrified and shaking uncontrollably. We had to sit on the tarmac for close to an hour because our flight landed an hour early and there wasn’t a gate available. It was the longest and most fearful hour of my life and all I could do was cry and want to hold my mom. I felt numb and just wanted to get to the hospital, hug my mom, and be there with my family as they were trying to figure out what the hell was going on and why. Our beautiful life with Beans just kept flashing before my eyes and the thought that it could all be over, made me panic even more. Life is so very precious and can be changed in an instance.

My husband sat in the cell phone lot at the airport, waiting for me to deplane and get my luggage, so he could get me to the hospital. The kids had a half day that day too and my youngest baby girl had a “Galentine’s Birthday” to celebrate her 7th birthday with her girlfriends planned that afternoon. I was texting the people in my closest circle for their prayers, love, and support. My best friend Crystal, without hesitation, helped with the kids and allowed for the “Galentine’s” celebration to go on. We wanted to try to keep things as normal as possible for them, as they had just experienced such a traumatizing scene earlier that morning. Not to say that was easy for them, but life went on with hearts heavy and full of worry.

I finally arrived to the hospital, to see my family in the waiting room with heavy hearts and tears, still waiting to hear something from the doctors. I grabbed my mom and hugged her so tightly. They had learned that Beans had no blockages to his heart and everything looked perfectly clear in his arteries. So, now what?! They continued running tests on him to include CT of the brain and chest to see if he had suffered a pulmonary embolism to the lung or an aneurysm. Everything was clear. At this point, he was on the ventilator, many life support drugs, fighting for his life, completely unconscious. They kept him sedated and immediately began therapeutic hypothermia to preserve his organs, if he were to make it out of this. This is something newer to the medical field that my mom is not familiar with, but the medical team recommended to start the process in hopes that this would reverse or lessen any damage done to any of his organs, especially his brain, during the cardiac arrest state. This is a 24 hour process, in which they dropped his temperature to 33 degrees Celsius (91.4 degrees Fahrenheit).

My heart was in pieces as I watched my mother pray over my bonus dad’s forehead, while he lay there hooked up to tubes, so many machines and medicines, as well as a ventilator that was breathing for him, keeping him alive. The “what if” fears kept creeping into my mind – "what if" my family has to face the decision to take him off the ventilator? "What if" his heart and organs are functioning well, but his brain is not? "What if" his lungs are too damaged and he needs a lung transplant? Fear and worry were completely taking over. My mother took his wedding ring off because he was starting to swell, retaining a lot of fluid – up to 13 liters at one point to be exact. So she used some lubricant, got it off and immediately put it under her wedding band on her finger. And, there it stayed. My heart was just in pieces watching all of this go down.

Us kids all came together and rotated our visits and overnight hospital stays, making sure someone was always there with mom too. GJ being the rock of strength in our family, it was obvious she needed all the love and support she could get during this time. One thing she never gave up on was her Faith. We are firm believers in the Power of Prayer. We had special prayer requests all across the country. It was pretty remarkable and so powerful. We continued to lean on our Faith with the hopes that we would experience a miracle and Beans would wake up, be able to walk and talk, as well as recognize us.

The neurologist performed an EEG on Peter’s brain to measure brain activity, which he didn’t really expect to see much of anything with the amount of medicine and sedation he was on. However, he reported back how optimistic it was looking as he saw brain activity patterns. More positive news! We thrived on that, even though the neurologist informed us that we wouldn’t know the level of brain damage from the lack of oxygen during those 49 minutes, until he is stable enough to do a brain MRI.

After 24 hours of cooling, it was time for rewarming, which is a long 12-18-hour process. We patiently waited for his body temperature to rise back to normal, which happened on Sunday, February 16, 2020. The nurses then began to wean him off the sedation.

Just as the sun was rising on Monday, February 17, 2020, my mom, Nicki, Dani, our brother Kyle and I were all at the bedside.

The rays of the sun were on the side of Beans face when he opened his eyes for a second, then closed them. Again, another positive moment that nearly took us all to our knees. Every single time J said, “Beans,” he opened his eyes and it was a beautiful green-eyed sight! We continued to see more progress, as the minutes, hours, and days went by. Peter was responding to commands. He was giving two thumbs up and wiggling his toes. It was such a relief because we knew he was in there, although he was still very disoriented. We were taking it one minute at a time. The respiratory therapists continued to monitor Peter’s lungs and blood gas oxygenation levels. The hope was that the numbers would continue to improve, so he could begin breathing trials to breathe on his own with the endotracheal tube in. He was showing progress in his blood gas oxygenation numbers, so they continued to slowly reduce the ventilator oxygen flow which made him have to work harder to breathe on his own.

Tuesday, February 18, 2020 marked another medical milestone and Beans passed his breathing tests. He had to be able to breath on his on with the tube still in. This time, he did 3.5 hours straight, so he was extubated that morning around 11:11am. Still a bit disoriented, the tube came out and he was much more comfortable. Voice raspy, could hardly say a word but he tried his damndest. Mom asked Beans, “Is there something you want to tell me?” Beans shook his head, yes and said, “I love you!” Again, more sobbing and celebration in our hearts!!!!!