Rikke Schmidt Kjærgaard
Författare till The Blink of an Eye: A Memoir of Dying―and Learning How to Live Again
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Verk av Rikke Schmidt Kjærgaard
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Dansk naturvidenskabs historie bind 3 - Lys over landet : 1850-1920 (2006) — Författare, vissa utgåvor — 5 exemplar
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Statistik
- Verk
- 5
- Även av
- 2
- Medlemmar
- 34
- Popularitet
- #413,653
- Betyg
- 3.9
- Recensioner
- 2
- ISBN
- 8
- Språk
- 1
How to explain it? A fit, apparently healthy 38-year-old woman entertained holiday guests one day; two days later, that same woman was in a coma. There were multiple micro blood clots throughout her body and an expanding hematoma (swelling of blood) in the right side of her brain. Her kidneys had failed, and she was retaining huge amounts of fluid—40 pounds of it, in fact. Her hands, feet, and nose had blackened due to inadequate blood supply, and the rest of her body was alarmingly discoloured.
Kjaergaard’s doctors determined which pathogen was responsible for their patient’s condition and the reason why it had taken over. At the age of 20, Rikke had been diagnosed with Lupus, an autoimmune disease. She had been hospitalized for three months then, but with attentive self-care, she’d been able to live a fairly normal life. However, over the years, Lupus had been taking a secret toll. Kjaergaard’s immune system was compromised, and her spleen, which ought to have defended her against Streptococcus pneumoniae, the bacteria that ravaged her body, was calcified and nonfunctional. Now suffering from pneumococcal meningitis, septic shock, and multiple organ failure, she was not expected to survive.
Her book, of course, shows that she did. However, she tells us that setting down her story was, at times, “like writing a biography of another person.” Significant parts of her account are based on the meticulous notes and photographic records that her husband, Peter, kept about her and her family’s ordeal. At first this documentation was Peter’s way of holding on to his comatose wife, but it would turn into something else: a record of her progress. When it seemed as though Rikke might survive after all, doctors warned Peter that she would be a changed person. The parts of the brain involved in personality were badly damaged. Rikke might shout or cry for no apparent reason. She might not know her loved ones at all and be completely dependent on others.
Kjaergaard’s account of her slow recovery from a life-threatening bacterial assault on her body and a seemingly unending sequence of complications is simply and accessibly written. There is a pared-down feel to it, and it’s mostly free of medical jargon. (The terms that are used are well explained.) Emerging from a two-week coma is not like a Hollywood movie, Rikke writes. It is gradual, protracted, arduous, and exhausting. A couple of minutes of consciousness, requiring so much energy and effort, are followed by long hours of darkness. Waking up also means experiencing pain and aggravating itchiness, without being able to do anything about either. For some weeks, Rikke was “locked in”, aware of others, able to understand them to some extent, but completely paralyzed and unable to communicate. To others she appeared to be in a vegetative state. From the inside, the condition was “like the most horrifying claustrophobic nightmare.” Eventually, a simple system of communication—one blink for “no”; two for “yes”- was established. A spelling board was used. Others would slowly point to the letters of the alphabet arranged in rows on the board, waiting and watching for Rikke’s blink-of-the-eye acknowledgement when the right letter was reached. This was a challenging and intensely frustrating system at best, especially for someone with an impaired short-term memory.
Rikke’s experience required her to relearn all the most basic bodily functions, including breathing, holding her head up, swallowing, sitting, walking, peeing and so on. Her book is an account of a struggle against formidable odds as well as an affecting story of love—marital and familial. It is never saccharine or sentimental. “Feeling loved,” Rikke writes, “is the most potent healing power.” Encouraged by hospital staff and some scientific studies, the family made a point of regularly speaking and reading to Rikke, believing that their voices might give her reason to return, and providing them with a therapeutic benefit in the process. 14-year-old Victoria placed a photograph of her mum on the bedside table of the hospital room to show medical personnel the real, vibrant woman they were working to save. It made a difference. Both doctors and nurses became more interested in their accomplished patient; she was now more than a medical problem.
In documenting Rikke’s experience, her husband was attuned to the most subtle changes in her condition: “he saw what no one else could see: a tiny light in the dull darkness of my downward gaze.”(In fact, scientific studies show that it is usually family members, not medical professionals, who are the first to know their loved one is still there—locked in.) Peter read the scientific literature, was in constant communication with her medical team, and lived at the hospital for the first weeks of his wife’s care. At one point, he requested her physicians’ permission to bring a close friend of Rikke’s to the hospital (at a time when only immediate family were allowed to visit). It was an experiment that yielded results. The friend’s visit elicited Rikke’s first direct gaze, a critical step back into life.
This is a difficult story to read, of course, but an important and worthwhile one. I learned a lot and was very moved. At the end of the book, Rikke provides a checklist for caregivers, which is well worth reading.
She concludes by saying that the book “was written to give a voice to those who have none and for anyone whose life has changed out of all recognition from one moment to the next. I am trying to see my unexpected survival and recovery as a gift that can help others, too.” It is.… (mer)