A Message from the Associate Publisher Alexander Hafizi – March/April 2022

In December 2021, I experienced one of the most difficult times of my life and I’m so happy to be here to tell you a little about it. It’s difficult to write about a major event in your life when you really don’t remember that much about it, so my story is based mainly on other people’s observations.
For me, December is a wonderful time of the year. If you know me, you know that my house is decorated to the nines and I attend all the holiday social events. But last year was very different. I was at a local event and complaining of a headache, which I don’t usually get. The headache persisted so I went to urgent care and they prescribed antibiotics and sent me home to rest. Fortunately, my parents decided to stay at my house that night because they were worried about me. They woke me up to take more medicine and noticed I was disorientated, and couldn’t answer simple questions, so they got nervous and decided to take me to the Emergency Room at Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital. The ER doctor took me for a CT Scan to find out what was going on with me. While I was in the scanner and much to the surprise of the ER doctor, I had a seizure, bit down on my tongue which blocked my airway and caused me to aspirate. The ER doctor was amazing and immediately gave me a massive dose of antibiotics and ordered me to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU). I was immediately intubated and stayed heavily sedated on a ventilator for over a week, that’s the part I don’t really remember. On day seven, I was transferred to the Definitive Observation Unit (DOU) of Henry Mayo and slowly they weened me off medication and I was able to go through physical therapy. After spending almost two weeks in a hospital bed, I was unable to do certain tasks, such as raise my arm enough to eat or even walk. I did well with PT and was able to go home to recover in the comfort of my own home. The diagnosis was that I had viral meningitis which made me to seizure. Viral meningitis is an infection of the meninges by any one of a number of different viruses.
After a few weeks at home recovering, I started to feel like myself again. And the doctors are confident that I will make a full recovery. Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital took such good care of me. We are so lucky to have such a great hospital here in our valley. I have a lot of people who took care of me while I was in the hospital, so thank you to Dr. Ladan Samadi, Dr. Charanjit Soroa, Dr. Luis A. Fiallo, Dr. Kelly L. Walsma, Dr. Robert L. Hook, Dr. Brian J. Chang, Dr. Thomas M. Kurian, Dr. Vikram Sehdev, Roger Seaver, CEO, Marlee Lauffer, Renee Leon and all the certified medical assistants (CMAs) and registered nurses (RNs) that helped me get better. They were Jenny, Jacky, Patrick, Manny, Katie, Ryan, Sera, Kayla, Bali, Stephanie G., Lori, Brianna, Mathew, Suzie, Caeser, Carol, Charisse, Monica, Tracey, Gil, Joaquim, Tracey, Abigail, Susie, Jocelyn, Melanie, Alysa, Lori, Ace and Daniella. My apologies if I missed anyone off the list! I would also like to thank my husband Arnold Bryant and my parents Linda and Moe for being there for me and visiting me at the hospital every day and helping me recover at home. It’s times like this when you really start to appreciate the people that are in your circle. I am so humbled to have such an amazing support system, and I am so happy to still be alive and doing well. It’s crazy to think how fast this all came on. After reading this I hope it gives you inspiration to be thankful and caring to people you interact with. Please give your loved ones the love and care they deserve, check in on them as often as you can because you never know what could happen. As we all know since the pandemic started this world has been very difficult for all of us. Let’s all love and care about each other a little more. So cheers to you and cheers to good health for years and years to come.
Sincerely,
Alexander Hafizi

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