Missed Opportunities!

Our 46-year-old daughter, Mary Ellen Tourres Bland, died Saturday, November 6, 2004, after being rushed to Ochsner Hospital in New Orleans. She had symptoms of weakness on left side also a numb lip from time to time. Her mother, an R.N., urged her to see a neurosurgeon. She said she would but never did. As was their Thursday night routine, Mary Ellen called and talked to her mother until 1 a.m. She was on her deck. We believe she had a seizure there, and hit her head. She knocked on the door, and her husband got out of bed and opened the door saying it was not locked. She was confused. He placed her on the couch and went back to bed. Later a guttural sound awakened him, and he found our daughter on the living room floor. She had lost all bodily functions. He cleaned her up and placed her in bed in the guestroom. The next morning (Friday) our son-in-law went to work and left Mary Ellen with their daughter-in-law. We understand that she complained of severe headaches, and the daughter-in-law placed cold compresses on her head. Mary Ellen remained in bed most of the day. That evening she watched a movie and after supper went to bed. At about 11p.m. she had a full body seizure, her husband then called 911 and they rushed her to Ochsner Hospital. Mary Ellen was given medications for the seizures and they began tests to determine the cause of her malady. It wasn't long before they made the diagnosis of cerebral aneurysm and started preparing her for surgery. She never made it to surgery. When a brain scan was performed, it was flat and the doctors pronounced her dead. Mary Ellen had two grown sons in their twenties and two granddaughters ages 2 and 2 1/2. I am Jack P. Tourres and live in St. Gabriel, LA. This crushing loss has spurred me to try to found an awareness group in the Baton Rouge, LA, area to warn others of this silent killer and, hopefully, to save someone's daughter or son. My beloved daughter was only 46 and in the prime of life. She had not been sick and did not have hypertension or any other heart problems. My wife had a first cousin that died suddenly of a cerebral aneurysm at age 65. My grandfather also died of one at age 56, but since that was before I was born I know nothing of his condition except from his death certificate, which I located in my genealogy work. Please help me if you can to get the word out.

Sincerely,

Jack Tourres
Submitted 2-14-05

Since writing the story and getting information about aneurysms, something else has come to mind and I want to share that also. When Mary Ellen was 15, she was out water skiing with a group of her friends on a Sunday in Monroe, LA. During the run and as they approached the dock, a young boy in a skiff darted out into the bayou right in the path of the ski rig. In order to avoid a collision, the driver veered drastically to the left, which would take the skier into the dock. Both my daughter and the other skier dropped their ski ropes when they saw what was happening. Unfortunately our daughter's ski rope wrapped around her ankle and dragged her underwater right into the dock. She hit the dock straddle legged and her head jerked violently back and then forward. The teenagers with her saved her from drowning and placed her on the dock. An ambulance rushed her to a hospital.

The doctors told my wife and me that it would take 48 hrs to determine whether she would live, die or possibly be paralyzed for life. Her vertebrae below the skull had ridden up on each other and the possibility of the spinal cord being broken was imminent. She recovered after much treatment.

About two years later she developed migraines. They became so severe as she grew older that by 23 she had to be rushed to the ER for treatment.

Mary Ellen continued to have these migraines up until the morning she died. In looking back, my wife and I think it could be possible that she injured a blood vessel in the brain because of that accident and it did not show up as an aneurysm until the day she died. We thank God that he at least gave us thirty more years of our daughter's love and comfort along with two wonderful grandsons and two great granddaughters.

Jack P. Tourres
Submitted 2/17/05