by Mary Wilson
In the morning hours of December 12, 2016, South Kansas City
resident Noelle Beck received a phone call she will never forget. Every
mother’s worst nightmare was coming true for Beck on that cold day. Her 29-year-old
daughter, Kayli Welvaert, was found not breathing by her boyfriend.
“He had gone out to start our cars and warm them up. I had
gotten up, and went and lay back down in bed, and that’s all I remember,” said
Welvaert.
Beck said that she doesn’t think her daughter was not
breathing for too long before her boyfriend discovered her and called for
emergency services. He noticed she was lying in a strange position,
possibly
due to a seizure, and saw her lips were blue.
“He called 911 and started doing CPR, breathing for her and
doing the chest compressions,” said Beck. “When he called them, the dispatcher
walked him through how to do it.”
When EMT’s arrived and took over her care, Welvaert’s
boyfriend then called her mom to let her know that she would be taken to Belton
Regional Medical Center.
“He told me, ‘I don’t know if she’s going to make it or not,
I don’t know if she’ll even be alive,’” said Beck.
When she arrived to the hospital, Beck was informed that her
daughter’s heart had to be revived three times. Beck and her husband were able
to go immediately into Welvaert’s room with her, as she had been intubated and
her medical team was working to get her stabilized.
“It was devastating seeing her like that,” said Beck. “You
don’t think your daughter, at 29, is going to have a heart attack.”
Once Welvaert was stabilized and her seizures were under
control, she was then taken by ambulance to Research Medical Center, where she
would later receive a pacemaker and be released from the hospital within six
days. While at Research, she was put into a medically-induced coma, and as she
was brought out, it was a matter of waiting to see how Welvaert would respond.
“We just didn’t know how long she’d been out or how long she
was without oxygen,” said Beck. “Then I started praying, and hoping for
miracles to happen.”
Miraculously, Welvaert woke up. Depsite some short-term
memory loss, she seemed relatively fine, given her circumstances and health
history. With a new, clean bill of health, Welvaert returned to work a short
time later.
“I just thank God every day for the people who gave me the
care they did, from the woman who coached CPR over the phone to the doctors and
nurses at the hospital, I am so very thankful,” said Welvaert.
On Tuesday, April 11, Welvaert had the opportunity to thank
the individuals responsible for helping save her life. Belton Regional Medical
Center hosted a Great Save event, and invited all of the first responders and the
medical team who provided care for Welvaert.
“What a miracle and a blessing to be able to stand up here
and look every one of you guys in the face and tell you, honestly, thank you so
much,” Welvaert said to her team of medical professionals. “All of you can rest
easy knowing that my four-year-old daughter, Hadley, has her mom.”
Welvaert said she wants others to know that despite age and
health, medical scares can happen to anyone. This week, along with leadership
from Belton Regional Medical Center, she was honored with a Certificate of Life
and her entire medical team was recognized.
“This is what we do. This is who we are at Belton Regional
Medical Center,” said BRMC CEO Todd Krass. “We are a team. I think this is the
best example of our mission. I’m so proud of the work our team did that day.”
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