She's Like Houdini or Something

My mother-in-law is once again in the hospital - this time in the ICU. She was brought by ambulance from the rehab facility a few days ago in critical condition with respiratory distress. The diagnosis this time is pneumonia, and she has two secondary bacterial infections as well. That means that whenever we visit Bev's room, we have to don protective gowns and gloves. Attractive. Bev has been on a ventilator since she was admitted to the hospital, although the nurses tell us that they plan to slowly wean her from the breathing machine in the coming days. Always one to be feisty, however, Bev had other ideas about this alleged weaning timetable. Under moderate sedation, and with her hands and arms restrained, my mother-in-law somehow managed to remove the ventilator tube from her throat yesterday. As alarms sounded, nurses rushed to her side and had to quickly summon a doctor to re-intubate her. No one can figure out how she accomplished the tube extraction, but nothing really surprises us anymore.