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Christy’s Collapse Days After Second Moderna Dose

Day 3 · 0:50:46 · Dean Allison · Adam Burgess

  • 🆘 Six days after her second shot Christy became unresponsive in the bathroom; delayed northern ambulance response preceded Whitehorse hospitalization.
  • ✈️ Hours-long wait for medevac to Vancouver occurred under strict COVID visitor limits while the family held her hand and pleaded for her return.
  • 💔 Adam whispered news of his wife’s pregnancy; a single tear fell before end-of-life care was begun the next day.

Timeline of sudden intracranial catastrophe and constrained final moments.

← Adam Burgess Sworn: Remembering Sister Christy | Aftermath: Organ Donation, Isolation and Lost Trust →

Transcript

Dean Allison · 0:50:46

So can you share with us what, what happened? My understanding is, is that she, um, on April 11th, 2021 received her second Moderna shot?

Adam Burgess · 0:50:58

I believe it was, uh, the 12th, actually.

Dean Allison · 0:51:00

Okay. And then on— so it would have been then April 18th, four days? Yeah, six days later.

Adam Burgess · 0:51:09

Yeah, I think technically the 19th, but it happened— well, it happened at the end of the 18th. She was, uh, living in a house out of town, about a half an hour outside of Whitehorse, with our youngest sister. And I believe she had said that she wasn't feeling well or she was feeling off, and she went into the bathroom and she was in there for a very long time. And, uh, my youngest sister heard a noise and ended up going into the bathroom and seeing her unresponsive on the floor. And the medical services in the Yukon are, you know, they're not always right there when you need them. And that's not a fault on them, it's just a reality of living in the north.

Dean Allison · 0:51:57

So they—.

Adam Burgess · 0:51:59

I can't imagine what it must have been like for her waiting for an ambulance for a very long time. And, uh, they took her to Whitehorse Hospital. I received a call just after midnight and, uh, from my mom's husband saying that something is wrong with Christy and, uh that we have to— that this is the time to come together as a family. And we made our way down to Whitehorse Hospital at that time.

Dean Allison · 0:52:28

And what happened at the hospital?

Adam Burgess · 0:52:30

Visitation was limited. Um, there was only a couple of us that were allowed to go in there. Again, um, services are limited. So in the Yukon, when something like this happens to you, you have to wait for a medevac to take you to a place where they have more substantial facilities— Vancouver, Edmonton— and somebody was already coming in from one of the communities. And so we had to wait a very long time to be medevaced. I think it was something like 8 hours before she could even get on a plane to a better place. Uh, we as a family stood around her, saw her with— she didn't look anything like this. She was um, had tubes in her and it was helping her breathe. And we stood around as a family and held her hand and just begged and pleaded, uh, for her return. Um, I held her hand, and because I'd only spoken to my mom about us, uh, expecting children.

Adam Burgess · 0:53:41

I hadn't— I wasn't planning on telling anyone else for a little while. I did tell her. I spoke into her ear, and, uh, just one tear ran down her cheek. And I'm still haunted to this day that she could hear me in, in that moment, uh, with what she was going through. And we all just said, like, we need— we need you. We love you, we, we need you to come back even if you're injured. And, and we just told her how much she meant to us and how special of a person that she was. And the people at the hospital were just kind of acting like, oh, this is fine, and she's like, we're gonna get her the help that she needs. And I eventually had to ask somebody straight up that like, is she going to recover from this? And they kind of just said, like, it's not, it's not looking good. There were people that wanted to go in and see her.

Adam Burgess · 0:54:41

They weren't allowed because of COVID restrictions. There are people that, you know, friends, just anyone that we, uh, contacted just could not believe what was happening. There are moments from that day that are just burned into my mind that I won't ever be able to let go of, probably. And just the, just the desperation as a family, just being completely helpless and wanting to, wanting to do something for her. And all we could do was just hold her hand and tell her how much we loved her. And I didn't, I didn't believe at the time that, that, that was the last time I would see her, but it was.