Beech Tree News Network

Lorie Elizabeth Stanley’s Story August 17, 1994-Feburary 20, 2015

Lorie Stanley was 12 years old when her (and her family's) life changed forever. Lorie lived with her father at the time and had been vomiting for about two days. Her mother, Lea Ann Alvey (with whom shared this story with me), received a call from her ex-husband, Lorie's dad, at 2:00 on the morning of September 23, 2006, telling her that he was taking Lorie to the hospital. They thought maybe she had developed a case of E-coli.
Shortly after arriving at the Owensboro Hospital, she was transferred to Kosiar Children's Hospital in Louisville, Ky. Upon arrival and testing, they quickly ruled out e-coli and discovered that Lorie had an issue with her kidneys. It was soon discovered that Lorie had a rare case of Vasculitis. Her mother, Lee Ann, couldn't remember the name of the particular Vasculitis they told them, but after looking it up (because I wasn't sure what this even was), I found that Vasculitis is a term for a group of rare diseases that have in common inflammation of the blood vessels. While I was reading about Vasculitis, I discovered that vasculitis of the kidneys may produce no symptoms at first but can end up having significant effects on your body. The type Lorie was diagnosed with was so rare, so much so that she was only the 4th case Kosair Children's Hospital had ever seen. She was entered, with her approval, into a case study.
The doctors tried to manage Lorie's condition for two months before they discovered things weren't changing and she would need to be put on dialysis. Lorie was then placed on peritoneal dialysis, and the testing began for a live donor for a new kidney. Lorie's father had the wrong blood type; her mother had high blood pressure, so they were both quickly ruled out. But praise the Lord, Lorie's aunt, with whom she was very close, was a match. They did what's called a 6 point match, and her aunt matched 5 out of 6, which the doctors said they would never find a better donor.
On August 9, 2007, the transplant was done. Only eight days before her 13th birthday. The surgery was a fabulous success and Lorie was up walking in 2 days and home in a week. Finally things were looking up for Lorie and her family. Life was good for about three years. When Lorie turned 16, things began to start going downhill with her health again.
Lee Ann said Lorie became very rebellious in her teenage years, especially her 16th year. She began having issues that most teenagers share; boyfriend problems, peer issues, issues with her parents and she just wasn’t taking care of her health as she should, and trips to the hospital became much more frequent.

On February 28, 2014, Lorie had to be placed back on dialysis, but this time, she didn’t do as well as when she was on dialysis before. By April of 2014, her blood pressure was skyrocketing and she began having seizures. She developed what is called Posterior Reversible Encephalopathy Syndrome (PRESS syndrome). This consists of rapid onset of symptoms such as headaches, seizures, altered consciousness and visual disturbances. And again, this is commonly present in patients with kidney disease.
Lorie went into a coma lasting about three days. Lee Ann said while they were worried because that’s what you do when your kids are sick, they weren’t terribly alarmed because the doctors gave them positive feedback. Hopefully, this was just a bump in the road before recovery would take over. Lorie did wake up from the coma and was doing much better, but she had this mentality that it was “all going to be alright” her mother said. Lee Ann said it was just so much for a teenager to deal with and Lorie just didn’t take care of herself as she should have considering how serious kidney disease is.
Life became very scary again for Lorie and her family in January 2015. Lorie had a stroke this time. The doctors had to place a tube in her head to relieve pressure. The results of the stroke were some limping and some speech issues, but nothing too noticeable her mother said.  She soon got to come home once again and was doing well. Life had become somewhat normal once again.
On February 14, 2015, Lea Ann was off from work, and she and her daughter spent the day together. As mother’s and daughter’s do, they went shopping, went to lunch and just enjoyed spending the whole day together. Lea Ann said, “it was a good good day.”
On the 15th, Lea Ann didn’t hear from Lorie at all that day, but later found out that her dad had taken her to the hospital due to more severe headaches. She was released that night once again.
 On the 16th, Lea Ann got the call again, that the ambulance had picked Lorie up and was taking her back to the hospital in Owensboro. At this time, she was having extremely severe, continuous seizures. Lea Ann was off from work and headed straight over to the hospital, which thank goodness was minutes away from her house. Lea Ann knew that Lorie had experienced seizures before, but she had never “seen” her daughter have one and she said it was the scariest, most helpless thing she had ever seen.
The hospital staff quickly placed Lorie in the intensive care unit. This is where things even became so much scarier. Lorie’s heart stopped beating. The doctors worked on her for 25 minutes, yes 25 minutes before they could revive her. The doctors told the family in most cases, they don’t work on someone over 10 minutes, but because she was so young, they kept working.
On February 17, 2015, Lorie was transferred by ambulance to the University of Louisville hospital. The news was not good. The doctors hooked up the brain wave machines and there was some brain activity, but there was so much swelling on her brain that the doctors said “IF” she woke up, she would not be the same. Her heart had stopped for too long. They then informed the family of the worst news…there was nothing more they could do to help Lorie. I can’t even begin to envision the devastation they all felt at that moment. Here their daughter, sister, niece, friend was lying lifeless at the tender age of 20 and there was no one that could help. They were told at this time; they need to be deciding on whether or not to leave Lorie on life support.

Lea Ann called the family on Tuesday night, February 17th and told them if they wanted to see Lorie, they needed to make their way to the hospital very soon. So together, on February 18, family members began a trip to Louisville; Lea Ann calls this the “Caravan of love for Lorie.” The cars began a trip that had to be extremely difficult knowing that this would possibly be the last time they would all see Lorie alive.  But at difficult times like these, this is what family does, they bond together and they get each other through the tough times. Lea Ann said the waiting room for the ICU was extremely small and soon it was filled over capacity with people that loved Lorie.
On February 19th, the neurologist did more brain wave test on Lorie and confirmed there was no change in brain activity. Family members stayed with Lorie as her blood pressure rose and hearing nothing but the sounds of machines keeping beautiful Lorie alive. The doctor came in and wanted an answer on what the families intentions were as far as leaving Lorie laying in the condition she was in.
Later that same day, February 19th, the hardest decision of the family’s life had to be made, and it was to let Lorie leave this earth and rest in peace.  She was then taken off life support. Again, I just can’t imagine having to decide this magnitude, especially for your own child. As Lea Ann said, “it’s just wrong; no one should have to bury their child.” Lorie passed away peacefully on February 20, 2015, at 8:17.
As if the family hadn’t dealt with enough through the years with Lorie’s illness and death, things kept getting worse. Funeral arrangements were made, but things quickly took a crazy turn, and after having gone through all the heartache of making the arrangements, Lorie was moved to a different funeral home due to a conflict between the business owner and the family. So, as if it wasn’t bad enough to make the arrangements of their daughter, they had to start all over again with making arrangements.
When I asked Lea Ann how she got through the days after Lorie’s funeral, she said the heartache is real. You hear of heartache from losing a girlfriend/ boyfriend or situations like that, but she said Lorie’s death was a true heartache, her heart actually hurt physically. Controlling her tears was not even an option. She said the nightmares were so bad for many nights. She dreamed many times that, because of the horrific ordeal with the first funeral home and having to move Lorie that they had to dig Lorie up from her grave.  She dreamed at times that Lorie wasn’t really dead, that her ex-husband was lying to her. But Lea Ann said they didn’t even really get to mourn the loss of Lorie before her father-in-law passed away, exactly two months later. Talk about getting dumped on, but God is what gets people through times such as these. Lea Ann said without the people from church and her faith, she doesn’t think she would have made it through all the tragedy.
One of the things that still bother Lea Ann the most about Lorie’s death is the fact that her daughter was never baptized. She said she knows Lorie believed, but she never made the commitment of being baptized. She deals daily with this, and as the writer of this story, I beg everyone to pray for Lea Ann, that she may find peace with this and just leave it in God’s hand and ask Him to give her peace and understanding. She said she just knows that she will look for her when she gets to heaven. She would like to add that she wants to bring awareness to children of God, to please be baptized and make that commitment because you don’t know when your last breath will be.
Lea Ann now has a granddaughter named Adeline Lou Marie Spencer,  that she had with her while she shared her story with me. She said Adeline doesn’t by any stretch of imagination replace Lorie, but she was born exactly nine months and one day after Lorie’s death, and she has brought so much joy and peace to her life. She said she knows it was God’s plan for her son to have this beautiful child because she was named after Lorie. Lorie’s friends called her Lou, Adeline’s middle name is Lou, so her name is carried on.
Another wonderful miracle that came out of this tragedy is that Lea Ann has a nephew that was involved in some things that he shouldn’t be involved in. And he told Lea Ann on the one year anniversary of Lorie’s death that he knows Lorie saved his life. He said he would be dead if it wasn’t for Lorie’s death because it woke him up and caused him to make a complete turnaround in his life and he is now living for the Lord. And he gives the praise to Lorie and God.
When I asked Lea Ann how she would like to bring awareness to Lorie’s disease and what she wanted other people to know to possibly prevent such a tragedy such as this. She said the doctors had told them a prick of the finger could have caught this at the very beginning. She said Lorie was not made to have a school physical going into the 6th grade. Lorie’s stepmom didn’t think she needed one and wasn’t pushed to do so because she wasn’t sick. Lea Ann just stated to please stay on top of your kid's physicals and immunizations and try to be proactive in your child’s health.

I want to take this time to thank Lea Ann for sharing her daughter's story with me and bestowing her trust in me. Below you will see some photos of Lea Ann and her granddaughter, Adeline, along with photos of Lorie and the rest of the family. The saying on Lorie's stone was thought up by Lea Ann because Lorie loved frogs. She said she just had to come up with something that was "about Lorie" to go on it and Hoppin' Around Heaven it was.