Calif. Paramedics to Help Ill Woman Get to Son`s Wedding
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Sept. 07--STOCKTON -- Dorothy Morris of Stockton has been defying the odds for most of her 71 years. She's been sickly since the age of 3, when she was first stricken with measles and double pneumonia. Throughout her life, while in and out of hospitals, doctors have told her that she could die soon -- but she's outlived most of those doctors.
With her severe breathing problems, scoliosis starting at age 12 and other medical problems, Morris certainly was advised against getting pregnant. She didn't listen. Thirty-one years ago, she gave birth to a son, Scott.
On Saturday, she will be attending his wedding in Monterey County, along with her doting husband, George Morris; her respiratory therapist, Patrick McMahan; two paramedics; and her constant bedside companion -- the ventilator that keeps her alive.
"Bad health is all she knows," said her sister-in-law, JoAnn Adams of Modesto, visiting Morris last week at Windsor Elmhaven Care Center on Pacific Avenue, where Morris has been living in the subacute unit equipped to care for ventilator patients. Morris has been attached to the ventilator -- a breathing machine about the size of a sixpack that pushes oxygen into her throat through a tracheotomy -- since February 2008. Liquid oxygen is used, coming from a drum-size tank, and another, smaller tank humidifies the oxygen so her lungs won't dry out. The system requires constant monitoring.
Getting her life-support entourage to the wedding site in Aromas -- a small community 124 miles away between San Juan Bautista and Watsonville -- is no small affair. Everything Morris requires to stay alive will be redundant, meaning there will be backups of every piece of life-support equipment.
Morris will attend the wedding in a new dress and hat her son bought for her. And she will be resting comfortably in a specialized chair brought to the wedding site just for her.
When McMahan, her registered respiratory therapist who is also a registered nurse and director of subacute services at Windsor Elmhaven, mentioned to ambulance provider American Medical Response about a month ago how Morris might get to the wedding, AMR decided to donate its services, estimated at
around $10,000.
Paramedic operations manager Bob Wattenbarger, with more than 20 years' experience, and paramedic field supervisor Rob Henning, with more than 15 years' experience, will be driving one of AMR's criticalcare transport units -- a larger ambulance that can accommodate the extra equipment as well as McMahan and Morris' husband.
"Like most care centers, we respond to Elmhaven and get to know the patients and staff well. Patrick had come to Michelle (Tomscak, AMR's basic life support division manager), and Michelle brought the idea back to our management team, telling us Dorothy didn't have any other way to get to the wedding," AMR information officer David Durand said.
"Your son's wedding is a oncein- a-lifetime event. Bob and Rob right away said they would do it. We're all pretty excited about it. We'll make sure she gets there and back comfortably and safely. For us to be able to give her the opportunity, I can't imagine what that will feel like for her," Durand said.
For Morris, it's apparent she's enthralled about traveling to see her son get married. Fully cognitive, her words come out in a whisper barely audible above the din of the machines around her. Listeners must watch her lips to understand her.
From her bed at Windsor Elmhaven, Morris whispered: "I think it's wonderful because they're doing God's work. God is watching over us. God makes wonderful things happen. We're following what God wanted."
It's that attitude, plus that strong faith, that has kept Morris going all these years. A captivating smile makes visitors feel instantly at ease with her lifelong afflictions.
"We can't just lie around, because if we do, we'd be so unhappy. If you're happy, it's because you're doing something," Morris said.
George Morris, 60, said he was 9 years old when he first met Dorothy as a friend of her two brothers. The couple was the first to marry in the Japanese Garden at Micke Grove in 1973, initiating the Lodi venue as a popular wedding destination to this day.
He credited McMahan with making the trip happen. McMahan, in turn, credited Tomscak and AMR.
"If anybody deserves the credit for this, Michelle pulled the strings," McMahan said.
"We're just the lucky recipients," George Morris said.
Contact reporter Joe Goldeen at (209) 546-8278 or jgoldeen@recordnet.com. Visit his blog at recordnet.com/ goldeenblog.
