Danielle Hill is a Super Trooper

Danielle Hill is a Super Trooper

By Brittany Alvarez, ENGL 336.001

         Living a normal 19 year old life, Danielle Hill was going to college and doing the best that she could. She transferred last fall from Delaware State University to Frostburg State University. Now, at Frostburg, Hill feels more on track and that FSU is worth the money that she is putting in. Her dad was not around much until the life changing experience Hill went through that would make any parent want to be closer to their daughter.

          While just sitting at home getting ready for dinner, Hill lost her appetite. It was weird considering she had no idea why. The, she woke up with a pain in her abdomen.  That same night the pain elevated to severe if not critical pain. Hill’s mother is a nurse, so she called her and told her the symptoms. Immediately her mother knew it was her appendix. That night Hill went straight to the hospital. If she waited one more day her appendix could have burst and she may have died. Luckily, she got to the hospital just in time for the doctors to remove the appendix. Once she returned home she could not keep her food down. Her stomach became red, hot, and swollen. That called for a trip to the emergency room. When she arrived the doctors did a CAT scan. They found an infection behind her uterus. While attempting to take care of that infection and take out her staples from her incisions, the doctors found another infection. As they were removing the last staples, the incision in her belly button opened up and one of her infections started to drain out. Hill notes that it was, “literally the worst pain of my life.” The narcotics caused vicious nightmares and the pain was constant. Surprisingly, Hill says, the nurses failed to do many of their tasks on the job as they knew Hill’s mom was a nurse. According to Hill, the nurses would not bathe her twice a day nor would they fully tell them what was going on. Her mother took notes of all the events and misfortunes. She sent it to a lawyer and now Danielle Hill and her mother are in the middle of a lawsuit with the Western Maryland Health System over the more than unfortunate series of events that caused near death infections.

          During these hard times Hill noted that, “it was the worst possible pain.” She was basically on bed rest once she returned home after being in Baltimore Northwest hospital. She was unable to actually take a shower for three weeks. There was a risk of infection if water would touch her sutures. Therefore, this left Hill and the sink to be “best friends.”

          Hill was out of school for nearly a month. Once she returned to Frostburg State University, many of her professors were more than willing to work with her on her  assignments and take a few off. But, of course, there is always something that stands in the way. She tried as hard as she could to keep up with everything in the end of the semester. Unfortunately, her grade point average dropped from about a 3.26 to a 2.6. Not too bad for a girl who has been through the roughest time of her life. This whole experience tested Hill’s motivation for school, but she stayed focus and is now back on track. All she knows is that, “I don’t want to ever go through that again.”  Great strength and tremendous courage encompassed Danielle Hill and that is the only way she is able to keep pushing today. 

 If you want to know more about the appendicitis...
 http://www.everydayhealth.com/health-center/appendicitis.aspx

 Danielle Hill (Age 20)