Fiber
Neveah Crain was a 18 year old woman in Texas. She became pregnant and was excited to start a family with her boyfriend. On the day of her baby shower, she began to feel sick. She was taken to the emergency room, diagnosed with strep home, and sent home. She got even more sick, and her mother brought her back to the emergency room where she was diagnosed with sepsis, and again sent home. After a third hospital visit in 20 hours, doctors noted that her baby had died and she was moved to intensive care. Hours later, she was dead. In Texas, where there is a strict abortion ban, doctors hesistantly treat pregnant women due to harsh laws and criminal procedures.
When her mother took her to the hospital, she never left her side. Doctors decided it was too risky to operate, her organs were failing and she was internally bleeding. Her mother locked eyes with her and told her, “Youre Strong Neveah. God made us strong”.
I understand Neveahs story, because of my own experiences. Thanksgiving day in 2015, I experienced the worst migraine and pain I had ever experienced. It was so profound that my vision was in and out, and I could not fully comprehend words or what was going on around me. My parents rushed me to the hospital, I was able to tell them how much pain I was in, and that I could not see. They filled me up with morphine and told my mother that I had drug seeking habits. They sent me home, and the next day I woke up with giant black holes in my sight and my legs stopped in the bathroom. Again, we went back to the hospital, no one looked at my eyes, instead they again told my mother I had drug seeking habits and was sent home. Three days later, it was discovered that I had experienced a brain hemmorage that’s damage could have been prevented with SIMPLE treatment if they had just looked at my eyes. Because they did not listen to me, denied what I was telling them, I underwent 2 brain surgeries and several eye surgeries in 3 months to save my eyesight and to manage my very chronic pain. I remember laying in a hospital bed three days before Christmas, my mom whispering in my ear as she held me through the most intense fear you could imagine, “youre tough as nails”.
I understand this inexplainable feral fear of not knowing if there is a tomorrow, and that in these experiences of being sick in a hospital sometimes the only care you receive is from your mother. These statements of strength and comfort that my mother poured into me, that Neveahs mother poured into her, are thinly veiled pleas to keep fighting, to hang on.
So often in hosptials, women are ignored, there symptoms are not believed. The outcome of that denial is detrimental.
I am able to understand Neveahs story, because I experienced it. Although, my story, my diagnosis, is very different, I am able to empathize her.
However, her story is very unique. Abortion is healthcare. When it is banned, it creates a ripple effect that creates havoc for ANY healthcare for women.
Neveahs mothers words are powerful. God made us strong, those words hold so much. Those words tell me that they both understood resilience and strength. God made them strong, God made them strong women. They were strong because of their experience of being women. Life had not always been easy for them, but they still persevered.
I cut the words out, because those words feel like a broken promise. Not a broken promise by Neveahs mother, or Neveah, but from a broken system that failed them both.
A system that did not prioritize Neveah Crain.