#BringDianaJamesHome | Update on Diana

Mom is back in Washington! KGW8 News

Posted on December 12, 2023December 12, 2023 by Megan

Story by Daisy Caballero, KGW News 8

We did it!!!!!

Mom officially arrived back in Washington last night (12/11/2023) at 10:20 pm and was directly transported to the University of Washington in Seattle and admitted to the hospital for the medical care she has desperately needed for 7 months. It feels surreal and we are over the moon to all be back in the same state!!! Our hearts are full and our family complete again!

.As we continue to navigate this next chapter, our efforts to raise money and continue to advocate for her care don’t stop with the plane arriving. We will need to pay off the $144,000 medical repatriation loan to the federal government and we will need money for ongoing care and treatment Humana will likely fight against covering. Please consider continuing to follow and share our story on social media, the website and here.

Thank you so much for all of your support, I cannot begin to tell you how much we have appreciated this amazing tribe of people!! There are no words adequate for our level of appreciation!!

Nov. 7 2023 | Maximus Update, Plea for Help!

Posted on November 7, 2023 by Megan

We are desperately seeking your help to continue sharing our GoFundMe. We have exhausted our friends and family and need this to gain more traction with friends of friends of friends. We need the power of social media. We have sent out press releases and have been unsuccessful yet. We are working several angles and just need one of them to work out….and soon!

Mom has contracted her 6th and 7th hospital acquired infection, pneumonia and a UTI respectively. Pneumonia is very dangerous to someone in her condition. And because the public hospital she has been in for nearly 6 months now can no longer keep her, she is being transferred this week to a lower level hospital with even fewer resources.

July 9th, 2023

Posted on July 9, 2023July 19, 2023 by Megan

Sorry it has been a while since we have updated. Mom is doing alright. She has another UTI and she is being treated. Luckily they caught this one before it caused seizures. For that we are grateful. Every time she battles an infection, her body struggles to do 2 things at once (wake up from a coma and fight an infection), so she usually turns less responsive. We usually see her turn a corner after the infection is gone though.

We continue to battle the bureaucracy of our government who isn’t helping and we are exhausted. I am hoping to make an appointment with the Embassy in person this week to see if seeing a face behind the emails and phone calls gives them enough empathy to do their jobs. All in all, we have reached out to the Embassy 10 times in the last 8 weeks to no avail.

June 27th, 2023

Posted on June 27, 2023July 19, 2023 by Megan

We have updated our fundraising goal to $185,000 as our mother’s care needs have changed and she is no longer ventilated. This is the next step down and would provide her the following:

An ambulance flight in an air ambulance fitted with intensive care equipment
A medical staff (doctor and paramedic) on board
A ground transportation in an ambulance vehicle from the patient’s location to the departure airport, and then from the destination airport to the patient’s destination
Individual and personal care of the patient during the entire journey
24/7 availability of your operations coordinator for any queries you may have
Regular updates on the progress of the ambulance flight

June 24th, 2023

Posted on June 24, 2023July 19, 2023 by Megan

Mom has been doing pretty good lately. Still a ways to recover but as we have learned, brains take time…a lot of time.

We continue to battle every bureaucratic road block possible. I have written an email to President Biden, no response. I have written to our state Governor, it isn’t something governor’s offices deal with. I have written to senators Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell, I have heard back from Patty Murray’s office and they are essentially just as useless the US Embassy here in Lisbon. Then to top it all off, her Humana medical insurance is now refusing to provide a letter of guaranteed payment to the hospital in the amount of €51,000. While she has WORLDWIDE coverage for emergencies, her insurance is now expecting us to front the payment to the hospital and then return home to “seek” reimbursement. Who has this kind of money just laying around?! We can’t even afford to bring our mother home. In my opinion, they should be more than willing to pay the hospital the full amount and even tip them 50% for taking care of my mom because that would still be a fraction of what her care back home would cost.

I am at a complete loss! I am baffled as to how one of the richest countries in the world is willing to leave our family abandoned in a foreign country. The people of Portugal are baffled and they are considered a poor country, because in this country they would NEVER abandon one of their citizens abroad. All this situation has done for me is highlight every broken system in the US. We want to think that the USA cares about its people, but they don’t. The care about who is lining their pockets and that is it. We should be focused on my mom and her care, but instead we are left to navigate this nightmare of red tape and BS….it’s just unnecessary! It is truly disheartening and I just don’t know how much more I can take. My soul is literally crushed!

June 11th, 2023

Posted on June 11, 2023July 19, 2023 by Megan

Today was a really rough day! While at the hospital Mom had a small seizure. I ran to get the nurse they came in and confirmed it was a small seizure and said they would contact the doctor to adjust her medications. Right before the doctor entered the room she had a pretty decent seizure that affected more than just face twinges. From what we are told these can be typical after this kind of injury/surgery. It was very scary to see and it depleted my emotional energy. My brother, Aunt and Uncle stayed at the hospital with her but I had to leave because it wrecked me to see her like that. They reported to me tonight that she is doing much better after the doctors increased her seizure medication. This recovery feels like 2 steps forward and 1 back and sometimes 2 steps back and 1 forward. It is the hardest thing my family has ever been through, hands down. I miss the mom I dropped off at the airport on Morher’s day almost a month ago. What I wouldn’t do to go back and change things!! Thank you for all of your continued shares and support! ❤️

June 7th, 2023

Posted on June 7, 2023July 19, 2023 by Megan

Update 6/7: We have very good news to share today!! Mom was taken from the Neuro Critical Ward and is now just in the Neuro Ward. She is no longer hooked up to machines that constantly beep. She only has a feeding tube, a port for medications and a catheter. Visitation hours aren’t so strict anymore and we are so grateful to spend more time with her. For those keeping track of her journey, that was 17 days in ICU, 5 days in Neuro Critical and now she is entering the next level of care where they will start to do rehabilitation. Little by little she is improving. No huge improvements in the last couple of days with her state, but we still have many miles to travel on this road. That woman is the strongest woman I have ever known. We met with the surgeon who decided to do the craniotomy surgery yesterday and we found out the only thing that saved her life was the fact that her pupils were not fixed. He took a chance on her at her age and we are so grateful he gave her a chance to live. Her midline is back to center and her brain as of the latest CT scan is normal. It was a very emotional but happy meeting. He was excited to hear that she had started to respond and immediately went up to evaluate her and signed the orders for her move. Her coma scale was a 4 when we got here and he said she now averages about an 8. She is our miracle!❤️

June 6th, 2023

Posted on June 6, 2023November 23, 2023 by Megan

A big thank you to KGW and KPTV (the local news stations back home) for amplifying our story! It’s going to take a literal village of people to bring our Mom home. We appreciate every single donation more than we can every convey!❤️

You can find our interviews for KGW and KPTV below:

A Vancouver woman is stuck in Portugal after suffering a medical emergency. It’ll cost $250K to fly her home Diana James suffered a subdural hematoma on the second day of her trip to Portugal. She’s now in a coma with her family unsure of when they’ll get to bring her back. View Original KGW Post

Vancouver family working to get mom home from Portugal after hospitalization View Original KPTV Post

Vancouver family working to get mom home from Portugal after hospitalization

Posted on June 5, 2023July 19, 2023 by Aaron

KPTV | Original Link
By Chandler Watkins
Published: Jun. 5, 2023 at 9:48 PM PDT

VANCOUVER Wash. (KPTV) – A Vancouver family’s worst nightmare has become a reality after their mom flew to Europe for a once in a lifetime vacation, and within 24 hours of landing, she suffered a brain injury and went into a coma.

June 4th, 2023

Posted on June 4, 2023July 19, 2023 by Megan

My mom’s sister and brother (Aunt Sandy and Uncle Terry) arrived today (by PST) in Braga which is ironically the same day our mom was supposed to fly home. We took them to visit mom today after lunch. Sandy is a retired nurse so I am very much looking forward to having an experienced medical professional here who can help us facilitate my mom’s care. Uncle Terry said she squeezed his fingers a little bit. We are all aware that she has a very long road to recovery ahead of her. However, if there is one person I believe in the most, it is our mother. I have intentionally stayed away from medically researching her diagnosis online…until today. Subdural hematomas have a 50-90% mortality rate. She had every odd stacked against her: the amount of time it took for her to get the surgery, the fact that she is elderly and has many other health concerns, the fact that she has a shunt in her brain already for NPH that only aided her hematoma by draining more spinal fluid from her brain and making room for more blood, the fact that her hematoma crossed the midline, and the fact that she was a 4 on the coma scale….all should’ve killed her. But she is still here and fighting to come back. She is breathing on her own, she can open her eyes for a little bit, she can move her legs, and can sometimes squeeze hands, her coma scale rating has improved and Matt and I strongly feel that she is comprehending the things we tell her and is finding small ways to communicate. She will definitely have a long road ahead of her and she will most likely never be the same again but we are grateful for every moment we have for her because we could’ve lost our mom and our lives would’ve been completely shattered, even more than they already are. Please continue to keep her in your thoughts and well wishes. Also, please continue to share this campaign to bring her home. We cannot do this without your love and support!❤️

June 2nd, 2023

Posted on June 2, 2023July 19, 2023 by Megan

6/2 Update: she has been moved to the Neuro Critical Ward from ICU. She is fully breathing on her own without oxygen or vent but still through the trach. On 6/1 she opened her right eye and held it open for quite a long time. Baby steps in a very long road to recovery but we celebrate every single milestone!! We are also pretty convinced she uses her feet to communicate with us. We ask her questions and ask her to respond using her feet. It isn’t concrete but Matt and I both feel that is what is happening. ❤️

Bring Diana James Home

Posted on May 15, 2023July 19, 2023 by Megan

Hi! Our names are Megan and Matthew, we are the daughter and son to Diana James. We are experiencing one of the most surreal events of our lifetime currently. It’s hard to imagine what we are dealing with, even for us living in these moments!

On Mother’s Day (5/14) we put our mother on a plane in Portland Oregon for what was supposed to be a trip of her lifetime to Portugal. Within 24 hours of landing she suffered a subdural hematoma, we believe due to some unfortunate events that occurred during her travel. She went to a park along the river bank for an art class and didn’t feel well. She lost consciousness at the park and the ambulance was called. She was taken to Braga Portugal for an emergency craniotomy (removing part of the skull to relieve pressure). We were notified on Tuesday 5/16 and were on a flight out on 5/18 arriving 5/19.

Up until 5/30 she had been intubated with ventilator assist but had a tracheostomy to allow her lungs to stay strong and her throat to heal. We spend several hours a day at her side offering encouragement and familiar voices in a foreign country. She is still unconscious but she has shown signs of improvement. Her eyes have started to open a little bit and had a few tears, she gripped our hand the other day, she blinks her eyelids and moves her body (especially when we tickle her feet), she responds to pain AND most importantly she is now breathing on her own without ventilation. Her latest CT Scan (5/31) was normal. As of 6/1, she has been moved from ICU to the neuro floor for rehabilitation. Her doctor back home, the doctors here in Braga and her children fully believe she just needs more time to wake up.