Read online at www.ChristinaNicholeComa.com to view dozens of photos documenting the story as it happened.
CHRISTINA NICHOLE’S COMA STORY
Christina Nichole on full life support at Sacred Heart Hospital Neuro ICU in Spokane WA in July 2004. Her older brother, Craig and his fiancée, Stacy are praying over her bed after doctors declared her brain dead – globally brain damaged, with NIL chance of recovery.
Dr. Bender – Head Neurologist for Christina during her coma, wrote this 4 page consultation report on 7/22/2004, which describes his diagnosis, tests, prognosis, and recommendations. Click the links to view the four page report:
7/22/2004 Consultation Report – Page 1
7/22/2004 Consultation Report – Page 2
7/22/2004 Consultation Report – Page 3
7/22/2004 Consultation Report – Page 4
A short version is that he wrote that she was globally brain damaged with NIL chance of recovery, he recommended removing life support with no further tests.
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Statement written by Christina Nichole:
I was in a coma and the doctors declared that I was brain dead / globally brain damaged. My mother and I have always had a silent connection that allows us to communicate without words and across distances. We do not understand how, but during my coma I was able to hear her and she was able to hear me. I was in and out of a locked-in coma state, where I could hear the doctors arguing with my parents and felt their painful tests each day, even though they were determined that I was ‘gone’ and unable to hear or feel anything. I often left my body and floated above it, looking down at myself and seeing everything in the ICU room, from the ceiling point of view. My mother was always able to call me back to my body and demanded that I not leave it again. She told me to look for God but not to go with Him. I talked with God. I was not in my body or room. It was beautiful, peaceful, and felt so good. God asked me if I wanted to go with Him. I told Him that I wanted to go back to love my mom and serve Him. God said I could go back. I did and then began a long, slow process to wake up from my coma. It was very difficult but Mom was always with me. I live with my parents at the ocean now. My mom had promised a trip to the Caribbean, which has always been my dream, as encouragement to recover. She could not afford the trip, so she and my father took me camping at the ocean and we stayed for a year. They then bought a house here and sold the house they had for 26 years in the desert part of the state. It’s my mom’s way of keeping her promise. I keep my promise to God everyday and serve Him in every way possible and love and treasure my parents. My near-death experience was the greatest blessing of my life even though I lost 20 years of memories, have short-term memory issues, and struggle with seizures and muscle problems. I am happier now than ever before, and forever thankful that God allowed me to come back.
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Christina’s coma story is in ’The National Enquirer’, April 13, 2009 issue, ‘The South Beach Bulletin’, April 16, 2009 issue, and other publications around the world.
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Click http://www.nationalenquirer.com/shes_alive_premature_organ_harvest_near_death_woman_/celebrity/66449 to read the preview.
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Click here to read The National Enquirer’s two page story. After the new window opens click on your Zoom tool to enlarge the words for easy reading.
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Click here to read the local newspaper’s half page article. After the new window opens click on your Zoom tool to enlarge the words for easy reading.
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The following excerpt is an interview with Dr. Hanson and ’The National Enquirer’. The published version did not include this part.
Family physician Dr Keith Hanson looked after Christina before the coma and after. And he’s seen the hospital records.
“They gave up on her.” he told this writer. “Neurologists suggested they withdraw life support. Her organs had failed, then recovered and were viable.
“They were convinced she was brain dead, otherwise they wouldn’t have suggested taking her off life support.
“She was as close to death as it’s possible to be, but Christina defied medical science.
“And sometimes we should just hold our hands up and say thanks to God for a miracle, because I think that’s what happened here.
“God touched her and she lived. It was a miraculous cure.”
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Statement by Judy Thornsberry:
Since my daughter, Christina Nichole, came out of her coma in 2004, we have worked everyday on her recovery therapies. As time allows I am building a new website named “Coma Diaries” where Christina and I will print the diaries we have kept from before she went into her coma, during her coma, and every day since her coma. We will invite other coma survivors or the families of coma victims to write their coma diaries and stories on our site. Until then, please visit the three photo albums of her coma experience at the hospitals.
DECLARED BRAIN DEAD – PAREN…
Christina Nichole went into a one-time onset of hypoglycemia (-10) and a coma after ingesting a prescription named Zyprexa for 13 months. This type of coma is called a Zyprexa coma. For Christina it was also a partial ‘Locked In’ coma, because she could hear and was aware of being paralyzed in her body. The first album chronicles Christina Nichole’s coma state from the first to the last day at Sacred Heart Hospital in Spokane WA. She was declared brain dead / globally brain damaged, with NIL chance of recovery in July 2004. The Neurologists did not perform adequate and customary tests, such as Harborview doctors said they would do routinely in cases like this. They did Primitive Reflex tests that gave opposite results than the same tests performed by her father, who is a Doctor of Chiropractic. Cat Scans, MRIs, and EEGs done independently after our return home showed normal brain activity with no signs of brain damage. Her memory loss, seizures, and muscular problems are a result of being in the coma. Tests like that do not lie. However, doctors do… at least in this case. How could she be completely brain dead except for a spotty portion of her brain stem that kept her heart beating, and have completely normal test results? How could so many doctors and specialists be 100% wrong? They can’t. So what was their agenda? It was clear that they wanted to kill her and harvest whatever they could from her body because they harassed us for 10 days to sign papers to allow them to do that. Why did they want her dead? Government insurance? Body parts on the market? We want answers and no one wants to answer the questions.
DECLARED BRAIN DEAD – PAREN…
In the second album, after Christina began to come back from her coma state she was transferred to St. Luke’s Rehabilitation Hospital where she learned to swallow, eat, talk, walk, read, write, solve puzzles, make salad, shower and groom herself. She lost over 20 years of memory, so she only had vague memories of her life after 12 years old and was quite amazed to see that her body had matured as she had no memories of that happening! Christina has not regained her lost long-term memory, and has daily short-term memory loss problems. Her muscles were weakened from the coma and her lungs and other organs still cause difficulties in her everyday life, apparently as a result of the traumas they went through during the first days of her coma. She has frequent daily seizures that are not epileptic in nature, but seem to based in panic episodes that she cannot control. She has frequent nightmares of her time in the coma and developed post traumatic stress syndrome from her memories of the doctors wanting to harvest her organs when she was alive and hearing them talk about it. She stays close to me day and night because she often feels unsafe and needs my presence to keep her reassured that she is all right and that no one is ever going to harm her or harvest her organs while she is still alive and aware. To the average person this would seem like a silly fear, but to Christina it is an all too true reality.
DECLARED BRAIN DEAD – VISIT…
“The Victory Visit” – Christina Visiting Sacred Heart Hospital in Spokane WA After Release From St. Luke’s Rehabilitation Hospital. The first photo in this third album shows Christina standing next to the chairs and conference table, where Mom and Dad argued with specialists, doctors, nurses, and clergyman that they were not in control… God is. If God wanted to take Christina He would, and if He didn’t we were certainly not going to sign papers to give permission to allow them to kill her. They continually insisted that she was globally brain damaged but had taken Cat Scan tests without telling us about it, and we found out two years later in copies of medical reports that those tests came back NORMAL. We tried to get all the medical reports ourselves but finally had to hire attorneys to obtain the copies because the hospital refused to send more than a few pages to us or doctor’s offices that requested copies. The hospital sent most of the pages to our attorneys but left some out that we remember reading during Christina’s coma. We had to pay the hospital nearly $2000.00 for the copies that they sent to our attorneys. During Christina’s Victory Visit on this day the nurses welcomed her with open arms, but the specialists and doctors scattered like running rats and would not talk with us.
To date a magazine in London England, ‘Real People’ has published a story about Christina’s coma in the #5-2009 issue, many people have used Christina’s story in their lines of work and studies, and many people have shared their coma stories with us. A magazine in the US, ‘The National Enquirer’ published a story about Christina’s coma in the April 13, 2009 issue. We invite anyone who would like to write us about Christina’s coma experience to contact us via my email address shown on the “Contact Us” page.
Christina seemed to be born with mood swing problems. She could be wired and awake for three days and nights at a time, literally wearing me out in the process. Then she would instantly switch gears and sleep for the next three days and nights. I fed and changed her while she slept through everything. If she was in a bad mood, nothing we did could put a smile on her face. If she was in a good mood, nothing that happened brought her down from her excited state. In her late teen years this translated into bizarre behaviors that I could never understand. She made poor choices, did not keep herself safe, hibernated in her room, or disappeared on unexpected excursions. After five years of college we knew that something was terribly wrong. She was brilliant and breezed through school and college classes until she started making so many poor choices that her education was disrupted and her life was in danger by people who would harm her. We brought her home from college two different times to attempt to help her. It wasn’t until the 2nd action of bringing her home that we were able to find appropriate medical attention. Previously doctors simply assumed that she was a ‘bad’ girl, and never believed me when I told them that she was not simply a bad girl. She had no reason to misbehave, which went against her nature, upbringing, and her personal values and beliefs. I’m sure most parents of kids who are not little angels their whole life feel that way too, but I never lost hope and continued to run interference in her life to keep her as safe as possible while we searched for explanations. Eventually she was diagnosed with Bi-Polar Disorder and started on medications, which ended with Zyprexa the day she went into her coma. Before her diagnosis the doctors had treated her for depression, not realizing that Bi-Polars are prone to suicidal thoughts and attempts when put on depression medication. Each time they put Christina on a new depression medication she responded by trying to attempt suicide. It was too devastating to put into words, and she had several very close calls. Fortunately, her weapon of choice was taking all the pills she could get her hands on at the time, so through the close observation that our family kept on her we managed to get her to the hospital each time, soon enough that the doctors were able to save her life. When she was not on anti-depressants she did not have suicidal thoughts and made no attempts to commit suicide. She could never understand how she could possibly think that way, let alone try to do it, because it was so completely against her nature when she was not on anti-depressants. After her diagnosis the doctors stopped prescribing anti-depressants and she stopped having problems with suicidal thoughts or attempts. Treating her Bi-Polar Disorder was not easy, however. She was put on one medication after another trying to find the right one for her, only to find that the dosage or drug had to be changed as the months passed. During each failure of a medication and finding another to take its place she suffered greatly with her uncontrollable mood swings between mania and depression. Of all the medications they worked with Zyprexa proved to be the best for controlling the Bi-Polar Disorder without side effects that she could not tolerate. We thought we had found the magic bullet! Little did any of us know that the manufacturers of Zyprexa, Eli Lilly, had become well versed on the fatal flaws associated with Zyprexa, including hypo and hyper glycemia… blood sugar control problems. For over a year after being aware of the situation they failed to notify the public or prescribing doctors. Patients developed Diabetes, experienced drops in blood sugars, or other extremely dangerous health problems. Blood sugars that go too high or too low can cause comas and death. All of this was happening and still Eli Lilly kept their dirty little secret about their highest selling billions of dollars making drug, Zyprexa. The 13th month of Christina’s taking Zyprexa, and three months after Eli Lilly made the problem public, we remained uninformed about it. Her prescribing doctor apparently did not hear or read about it and did not make the connection to the danger that Christina was in at that time. Even at the time that her blood sugar dropped to -10, putting her into a ‘Zyprexa coma’, the doctors on her case were either unaware of the connection or ignored it. We were never told that Zyprexa caused her coma. We finally saw an ad on television talking about Zyprexa lawsuits in the summer of 2005, one year after her coma, and put it together ourselves. Her case is still waiting to go to trial in New York City after we initially turned down the original settlement offer from Eli Lilly’s attorneys. Thankfully Christina did not need to take any medications for Bi-Polar after her coma and we see no signs of the disorder. So she is safe from further problems for medications given to Bi-Polar patients. It is unbelievable to us that Zyprexa continues to be the most profitable, highly prescribed medication for Eli Lilly. They were only required to write a warning on the label, and settle lawsuits with damaged patients or their next of kin. I do not know, but Christina may be the only surviving Zyprexa coma patient. She would be dead too if we had listened to the doctors insisting that she was brain dead and signed papers to allow euthanization. Praise God for her determination to come back! She is my hero because she has survived so many nightmares in her short life, and she has overcome every one of them, glowing with God’s light through each and every day. Judy – Christina Nichole’s thankful mom.
Click here to view just one of many websites describing Zyprexa Comas and other medical complications caused by this medication.
8 comments
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April 19, 2009 at 7:39 pm
Washington WA Peekaboo Pekingese and Shih Tzu Breeder
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Hello Melissa! Wow… thank you so very, very much for your comment! I know it takes time and effort to get to this page on the Internet and it is touching to me that you cared enough to do that and to write such a nice message. Bless you! Judy
April 19, 2009 at 10:58 am
Melissa Albaugh
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I just read your story in the National Enquirer and just wanted to say one thing. You are a great Mother!!!
December 13, 2008 at 12:00 pm
Washington WA Peekaboo Pekingese and Shih Tzu Breeder
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Hello Carla. Thank you so much for writing! I appreciate your thoughts and prayers for Christina as she continues to deal with the aspects of her coma. I enjoyed your message that you have been there and encouragement to hang in there. You too! You have overcome as much or more than Christina… especially since you have children. Christina cannot even imagine having a child to be responsible for. She cannot have children, has never been married, and doesn’t want to date since her coma. Our dogs, cats, and birds are sometimes overwhelming for her and she says, “I can’t imagine having children… this is hard!” She gets frustrated so often and wants to quit, but I don’t let her. I think it is the best occupational therapy she could have, along with the print art that she creates on the computer. Computer work is extremely challenging for her everytime she sits down to work on it.
Blessings, Judy
December 12, 2008 at 10:22 pm
Carla Richard
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Way to go kiddo I found this looking for a peek puppy for my deaf daughter. I have been there my self, in a coma. My kids were told I was brain dead and it was best to unplug me. Thank the good lord and the faith of my children, sisters and my mother I am still here. I have been out of my wheel chair completely for a year now. It was a very hard road to learn to walk, talk, and even potty train again but I made it and so will you just keep trying. I will pray for progress daily for you. I went into a coma because of a really bad infection in NOV of 2003. I am a mother of 4, a grandmother of 13 and since Sept 27 of this year a great grand mother of 2. I am going back to find my 13 year old deaf daughter a peek puppy I was raised with them and would love to have another in the family. Hang im there kiddo the best is yet to come, God loves you and you have some thing important to do here.
December 6, 2008 at 8:26 am
Washington WA Peekaboo Pekingese and Shih Tzu Breeder
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Thank you for your kind words, Rhonda. Please check our “Available For Purchase” page for Pekingese puppies availability. Thank you.
December 6, 2008 at 8:19 am
Washington WA Peekaboo Pekingese and Shih Tzu Breeder
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Thank you for your kind words, Shannon. Please check our “Available For Purchase” page for Pekingese puppies availability. Our shipping options are shown on the “Shipping” page. Thank you.
November 9, 2008 at 10:55 pm
Rhonda
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I am so sorry to hear about your daughter. I am glad to hear that you all didn’t give up on her! You guys are special parents not giving up on her and for being there for her. I believe things happen for a reason even though we don’t understand why.
I can feel your pain because we have an autistic son that is 20 years old now and we have to fight for him all the time. The doctors were very negative about him when he was a little boy and I had to fight to put him into a public school but I didn’t give up! He couldn’t talk at first and on top of his autism he had ADHD. To this day, our autistic son can talk and he has eye contact and he has high functioning autism. I am very thankful I didn’t listen to those doctors and teachers here in Oregon.
You guys were blessed with a loving beautiful daughter! I am very touched about your story! God be with you all and never give up on anything that you believe in. I think what you are doing is a wonderful thing raising dogs to help her. We raise shih tzus and persian cats to help our autistic son. I think God for animals!!!
We are interested in one of your beautiful pekes! We love pekingese breed. Please let me know what you have available. We look forward to hearing from you soon!
God Bless and Take Care,
Rhonda
October 8, 2008 at 10:49 pm
Shannon
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I would really love to have one of your puppies. They are beautiful! As is your daughter. I read the bio on your web page and it is a miracle what your family has to endured. I think what you do is fantastic. I would love to adopt one of your puppies. please send me some info on what little baby is still available. I live in Oregon but I wouldn’t mind the drive. Thank you and God Bless.
Shannon Cluphf
Judy Thornsberry
www.PeekabooPekingeseAndShihTzu.com
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