Originally published June 26 2015
Minnesota teen left brain dead after dental surgery to remove her wisdom teeth
by L.J. Devon, Staff Writer
(NaturalNews) A routine dental procedure suddenly descended into darkness for one Minnesota teen. When 17-year-old Sydney Galleger went in for surgery to have her wisdom teeth removed, she must have been nervous, but nothing could have prepared her for what she was about to face. No one saw it coming.
Everything seemed normal throughout the surgery. As the surgeons were wrapping up, Sydney Galleger suddenly went into cardiac arrest. Her blood pressure shot up. Her pulse fell off. Emergency responders quickly administered CPR, but Sydney's condition was far from stable as she was resuscitated and transported to the nearby hospital.
Over the next few days, Sydney's condition fluxed from stable to critical. Her parents could only watch in horror as their daughter went through bouts of extreme swelling and seizures. The parents shared their daughter's journey on her CaringBridge website. Community support from Eden Prairie, Michigan, ensued, but by the end of the week, many thought that Sydney wasn't going to make it.
17-year-old Sydney Galleger loses 90 percent of her brain, but still able to breathe
After a week of not knowing what could happen next, Sydney was still alive, but the condition of her brain had severely deteriorated.
"She is in very critical condition and of course we are praying for a miracle but we also have to face the reality that the prognosis is not good," Sydney's family wrote.
The doctors who were overseeing Sydney's condition reported that she was now 90 percent brain-dead. They confirmed that Sydney's brain showed nine out of 10 criteria that determined brain death. The only thing left that she could do was breathe on her own.
"We want to rewind to Monday where we had our happy, healthy, funny, beautiful 17-year-old daughter," Sydney's mother lamented. Just a week before, Sydney was one of the happy and healthy teens on the Eden Prairie lacrosse team.
Fellow teammate Serena Rutledge reflected, "When I think about it, it just makes me reflect on my own life and my own friends and family."
In a time of such confusion and grief, Sydney's lacrosse team showed their support by wearing ribbons in their hair of Sydney's favorite color, blue. Sydney also enjoyed skiing and diving.
One student, Kate Piechowski, said with sincerity, "She really did touch so many lives."
Another friend wrote in a blog, "The little amount of time that I knew Sydney Galleger was not enough. The fact that I had seen her just a day before this tragic event occurred deeply saddens me, and I cannot imagine the unbearable sorrow the family is feeling today, and will feel every day ahead."
Sydney's family members wrote somberly on the CaringBridge website, "We are so devastated that this has happened to our precious daughter and are still trying to process and make sense of it all.
"As we look at all the pictures covering her hospital walls, we can't believe this same happy, healthy, funny, still beautiful daughter, sister, granddaughter, niece, cousin, and friend is lying in that hospital bed."
Since then, Sydney has been transferred to University of Minnesota Masonic Children's Hospital. Doctors there say an unknown, underlying heart condition could have surfaced during the surgery.
Sources:
http://minnesota.cbslocal.com
http://www.nydailynews.com
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