Summary
Eighteen-year-old Nevaeh Crain died from sepsis after Texas’s abortion ban delayed critical medical intervention during her pregnancy complications.
Despite multiple ER visits and severe symptoms, doctors waited to confirm fetal demise before acting due to the state’s restrictive laws. Crain endured intense pain and deteriorating health over multiple hospital visits, ultimately suffering a miscarriage and passing away from internal bleeding.
Medical experts believe timely intervention could have saved her. Her mother, Candace Fails, is pursuing legal accountability but faces significant legal hurdles under Texas’s stringent emergency care standards.
This is tragic and sadly entirely predictable given the Texas laws.
A dramatic rise in pregnant women dying in Texas after abortion ban
“From 2019 to 2022, the rate of maternal mortality cases in Texas rose by 56%, compared with just 11% nationwide during the same time period”
If you have a pregnant loved one, get them the hell out of Texas.
Imagine being a doctor in this scenario. You could save them. You have the tools, the capabilities, the facility. But you have to let them die or risk ruining your own life. There are no winners here.
And if you’re really dedicated to being a person who saves lives and its a big part of your personal identity, you’d also be risking the lives of the future people you’d be able to help and your identity as a person who saves lives. You can’t help this one person in this specific life threatening situation but there’s other peripartum hemorrhages you could help and many more you could try to keep out of that condition to begin with. But to do that you have to let this one person die despite knowing how to help them too. Absolute shit sandwich.
I’m working on developing a better work life balance but for the longest time working as a nurse has been the thing I stuck around on ye olde mortal coil for. It’s what was worth sticking around to try and get through all that therapy for. I won’t try to say it’s healthy but if I lost my license I don’t really have a whole lot left to stick around for.
I hope you stick around. We need nurses so badly and we have so few.
Laughs in heritage foundation
Maybe the saddest part about all of this is due to the structure of American politics and the vitriol right wing voters have for people they deem “others,” there are, sadly, perceived “winners.”
Don’t even visit while pregnant.
Things can happen suddenly and you might not be able to get out to save your life.
Coming nationally to a state near you if the republicans win.
#VOTE!!!
All right, Texan Republicans. You have your moderately attractive blond white girl sacrifice to rally behind. You can do something about this now.
Only if the father was also white and blond. If the baby was “mixed” out could eventually claim to be Indian or Black…
Sepsis is no joke!
Story time: Awhile back my youngest daughter (7 at the time) got pneumonia and it landed her in the hospital. Unfortunately the bacteria causing the pneumonia got into her blood, which is what sepsis is, an infection in the blood. Another unfortunate occurrence was that the doctor’s did not know what was happening, so her sepsis went untreated and she went into septic shock.
Septic shock is when your body basically says “we’re really fucking sick so we’re taking all the blood out of our limbs (lowering blood pressure dramatically), to help protect the vital organs, so we have some chance at surviving this”. So it goes without saying that septic shock is not a very good sign, and intense critical care is required to survive it.
Once the doctors figured out what was actually happening they had us flown to the PICU at the children’s hospital in the city.
When we arrived at the new PICU they immediately put her in a medically induced coma, then it was pure madness for the next 48 hours. Literally round the clock care. So many doctors, nurses, specialist coming in and out at all hours of the day and night.
The doctors recommended we sign a DNR because it got that close at times. We signed it because we couldn’t bare the thought of her last moments being horribly painful when she had been through so much already. Plus if she did survive the cardiac arrest it would likely just repeat itself because she still has a ranging infection killing her. Those were some really scary days. I’m not a religious man but I can certainly see how religion would be comforting to folks in those moments.
Two weeks later my daughter was brought out of her medically induced coma. She had survived septic shock, was no longer septic, but she still had pneumonia and was requiring a ventilator to breathe. The entire stay took 4 months between the PICU and the Rehabilitation Hospital.
Unfortunately the tissue damage to her hands and feet, due to her body pulling the blood into her torso, was so significant she ended up having both feet and her right hand amputated. She lost the very tips of her thumb, pointer finger, and middle finger on her left hand, other than missing those fingertips the left hand was fine, thank goodness for that.
So yeah. Sepsis is no joke. See a doctor if you are feeling really sick or if you are sick for more than a few days. Take all of the antibiotics they give you, and monitor your vitals (temps, respiratory rate, heart rate, oxygen saturation, blood pressure) as best you can with what you have available at home. If something isn’t right call your doctor or go to the ER.
I am absolutely awestruck by the amount of bravery and critical thinking under stress that it must have taken to understand that you needed to sign a DNR for your 7 year old. Most parents in your situation would barely be able to add up 2+2, let alone comprehend enough of what the doctor was saying to make that kind of decision.
I’m also so happy for all of you that you wound up not needing that DNR. I hope she’s adapting well to her life with those limitations, but often children that age have enough neuroplasticity to work it out. She’s also certainly got parents who know how to put their own emotions aside and make sure she gets the care she needs, so under the circumstances she’s got a lot going for her. <3
She was murdered by republicans, and the murder weapon was their shit legislation
But, they get to continue controlling women, so her sacrifice was worth it (they’ll decide).
Tomorrow (November 5th) is Election Day. Go vote. And get informed and vote in every election, local, State, and Federal thereafter. If you don’t, this will continue to happen. The States have this power only because we, the citizens of those States gave it to them, or worse yet, said nothing as they took it for themselves.
If you don’t vote, then don’t go complaining later if the result isn’t what you want.
What if we vote and the problem continues? What if voting gives us the illusion of control?
TLDR: Vote anyways, and make your voice heard.
The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, > or to the people. - US Constitution, 10th Amendment
The way that the US is setup, actual power and authority, does not actually exist at the Federal level. Not really. Not over you as an individual. And your individual vote at the Federal level will not really move the needle.
The actual authority and power over your life exists at the State and local levels. And this is where your vote can actually make a real difference as well, because elections at these levels are often decided by mere hundreds of votes. Your local elections are often decided by mere 10’s of votes.
The most powerful of all, however, are the local school boards, which are often elected positions. However, decisions made by school boards don’t make changes to your community over night, however. It takes years for the children they teach to grow up and begin exerting their control over the system.
What if we vote and the problem continues?
That will happen. I’m sorry that’s not the answer you want. It is difficult to make large changes to society or governments in a hurry. You can think of society and governments like large boulders. The larger the society or government, the larger the boulder.
A handful of people might move that boulder slowly over time, more people though, can move that boulder more quickly. And of course, a much faster or larger boulder could always strike it and move it quickly, though not necessarily predicably.
What if voting gives us the illusion of control?
Sticking with the physics frame of reference, as an individual person, you have all the control you could ever want. You just don’t have enough power or “force” to make much happen at larger scales. The physics frame of reference breaks down somewhat, though, as a single voice, well spoken and well presented, at the right time, can not only move all the smaller pebbles (people) and the boulder (society or governments), but an entire damned mountain and can move it precisely.
Excellent and thoughtful response
Well its a white person this time, so maybe people will actually give a shit
A white woman, don’t get your hopes up.
We are the shithole country.
Yeah, this is the sort of thing I’d expect to see in some 3rd world backwater.
Soon women will be wearing hijabs like in iran 😐 what a fucking stupid population we have.
They’re more likely to lack tools facilities and equipment and maybe training; I doubt there are many who would actively block something that they had readily available.
Unless they were also under the control of psychopaths / sadists / sociopaths.
Do something about it and vote. We all have to do our part
When you are brainwashed by religion, you become a sociopath, and as a result of that, vote against abortion, healthcare for all, food stamps, and anything else that is humane. In short the exact opposite of what Jesus preached.
The American exaggerated rhetoric about freedom, is so extreme that sociopathy has become a virtue. Because an absolute lack of conscience is absolute freedom.
“Since her death, Fails has sought legal action to hold the hospitals accountable.”
Wrong target. You go after the politicians who passed the law that killed your daughter.
If you close down all the hospitals with lawsuits, the politicians will be held accountable. One would hope, at least.
What are you talking about?
Are you saying that instead of suing the hospital, she should start up a PAC to go after hundreds of Texas state politicians…?
Because if you meant sue them for wrongful death, they are exempt. So even if they are more directly culpable in their daughter’s death, she cannot bring direct legal action against them for that.
Criminal action. They directly killed her daughter.
You are aware that legislatures cannot be held directly criminally responsible for the laws they pass, right?
I’m not disputing that their actions killed their daughter, I’m trying to explain to you that they cannot be held legally responsible in the manor you’re suggesting.
Shouldn’t stop anyone from trying. The press alone would be worth it.
There wouldn’t be any press…
No lawyer would take the case. Hell, a lawyer might even get sanctioned for even attempting to file it.
This isn’t like an uphill legal battle where there’s a process that can draw attention. It’s a non-starter.
Pretend you file a lawsuit by filling out a form online, but whenever you try and submit this lawsuit, it goes to 404 not found. You’re suggesting they spend thousands of dollars, for a 404 error.
However, suing the hospital, is a very long and drawn out legal process… So if your goal is to bring attention to the issue, well there you have it.
It’s indirect.
This is considered a human sacrifice by the GOP. They are intentionally letting women die. I don’t know what dark god they pray too but this needs to stop.
Vote them to oblivion!
GOP: “BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD! SKULLS FOR THE SKULL THRONE!”
I suspect Trump is a gene stealer cultist or a servant of gurgle more than Korne.
How many women do the Republicans have to kill before everyone else is too outraged to let it go on?
probably the same as the number of school shootings before there will be any meaningful action
pro-life is just an ironic name. they’re very pro-death. death penalty, gun violence, poisoned waters, preventable diseases, disproportionate deaths from a pandemic, suicide due to mental health problems, social pressures and ostracization… name a cause for death, they’re in support of it.
They really enjoy killing people.
No lives matter to these ghouls
One of the reasons I hear for these draconian, inhumane laws is that we should be having more children to sustain the (subtext: white) population. I just only just realized they will do the exact opposite.
Poor woman. What a tragedy.
To everyone saying maybe now they will do something, this happened a year ago, and the mother can’t even find legal representation to take the case, so probably not.
Welcome back to the Middle Ages…
