A tragic turn: Mother of groom hospitalized after accident on morning of wedding in Cancun

Posted 11/25/14

“I rushed to the lobby and made it just in time to get a ride to the hospital,” Dustin recalled. “She was in and out of consciousness, and there was lots of blood. It was terrifying.”

Theresa had suffered massive brain hemorrhaging. …

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A tragic turn: Mother of groom hospitalized after accident on morning of wedding in Cancun

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Nov. 14 was the day Dustin Pike had looked forward to and planned for months: It was to be his wedding day.

Family and friends had gathered at a resort in Cancun, Mexico, to witness and celebrate the occasion. But as the groom prepared his wedding vows that morning, he received terrible news: His mother, Theresa Pike of Powell, had fallen in the resort’s lobby and hit her head. An ambulance was en route.

“I rushed to the lobby and made it just in time to get a ride to the hospital,” Dustin recalled. “She was in and out of consciousness, and there was lots of blood. It was terrifying.”

Theresa had suffered massive brain hemorrhaging. Doctors told the Pike family that Theresa needed emergency brain surgery and to say goodbye before she went into the operating room.

“It was heartbreaking for my dad (Jim), my sisters and me — definitely the saddest moment of my life,” Dustin said. “I didn’t think she would survive the surgery after having to tell her goodbye.”

With their wedding now canceled, Dustin and his fiancée, Heather Bogus, waited with their families and friends, not knowing whether Theresa would survive.

For hours, they waited in a parking lot in front of the hospital with no contact from the hospital staff.

“It was the longest day ever,” Dustin said.

Medical and financial struggles

Theresa did survive the surgery, but remained in a medically induced coma for several days.

The family also faced new struggles: Getting Theresa back to America while dealing with the hospital and resort in Mexico.

The Cancun hospital wouldn’t accept Theresa’s Medicare coverage, so the family paid tens of thousands of dollars as a deposit for the emergency surgery to save her life, Dustin said.

“Then, every time we visited her there, the administration kept forcing my dad to pay more and more money,” Dustin said. “It started to feel like they were taking advantage of us during our most vulnerable time.”

When an air ambulance arrived to take Theresa to Houston, “the hospital administration didn’t want to let the ambulance take her unless we paid another $22,000.”

Dustin argued with them until they agreed to let him sign a promissory note for that amount, and Theresa was then transferred to Houston.

“We also struggled a bit with the language barrier, although my sister Kelci speaks very good Spanish and was able to translate for us a lot of the time,” Dustin said.

Adding to the family’s stress was the resort’s unwillingness to refund the canceled wedding expenses.

On the morning Dustin and Heather left Cancun, they were given a form to sign that would release the resort from all clams tied to Theresa’s accident as a condition of receiving any refunds for the wedding expenses.

“We did not feel comfortable signing this because we still don’t know what caused my mother’s accident,” Dustin said. “All we wanted was to receive money back for the services we did not use, so that we could help our parents and hopefully plan for a new wedding in the future since we never got to celebrate.”

As the family potentially faces hundreds of thousands of dollars in medical bills and other expenses, a fundraising effort is underway. (To donate online, visit www.gofundme.com/hmvwpk. See related story below for more information.)

On the path to recovery

Theresa’s loved ones describe her as a fighter. It isn’t the first time she’s faced life-threatening medical problems.

She suffered a massive stroke 27 years ago on Christmas Eve. Theresa eventually recovered, but suffered a permanent loss of motor skills and movement on the right side of her body.

Theresa’s husband, Jim Pike, was beside her throughout the recovery then, just like now.

“He seems so encouraged by her recovery this time around, as she seems to be recovering much more quickly than she did last time,” Dustin said.

Since coming out of the coma late last week, the family has watched Theresa make amazing progress.

She struggled to open her eyes on Thursday, but started to respond to her family on Friday by squeezing their hands. She opened her eyes fully on Saturday, and started smiling and even trying to speak after her respiratory support was removed, Dustin said.

By Sunday, Theresa was laughing, speaking a few more words and even singing a little bit of her favorite Dallas Cowboys fight song with the help of her daughter Erin.

“She even pouted when we told her she couldn’t go home to Powell just yet and when we had to say good night — it’s encouraging to see that she still has her sense of humor and her fighting spirit,” Dustin said Monday.

Theresa is still struggling to answer questions with an answer more complicated then “yes” or “no,” and it takes her a little while to remember family members’ names.

“But she’s comprehending more and saying a little more with each passing hour,” Dustin said.

Theresa is now recovering in Houston, where she will undergo months of rehabilitation and in-patient care. Jim has relocated to Houston indefinitely until Theresa can return to Powell. He is looking for temporary housing near Houston Methodist Hospital, where Theresa is being treated. The couple’s daughter Erin already lives in Houston, and their daughter Kelci has decided to stay there for the duration of Theresa’s recovery.

Dustin, who grew up in Powell, is now living in New York City, but is in Houston with his family through Thanksgiving. He plans to travel to Houston frequently.

Couple postpones wedding ceremony

Dustin had planned to dance with his mom that night at the wedding reception to the song “Dancing in the Moonlight.”

“My mom is one of the happiest people you’ll ever meet,” he said. “She loves to sing and dance, and leading up to our wedding day she kept talking about how excited she was to dance with me at the reception.”

Dustin hopes he will get to dance with his mom on his wedding day — he just doesn’t know when that will be.

“Right now, we are focusing on my mom’s recovery, as it wouldn’t be a real wedding celebration without her,” he said.

Since Theresa is still in the early stages of recovery, they don’t know when she will be released.

“Once we have a better idea of how soon she will be feeling well enough to celebrate and dance with us, we can start thinking about planning something new,” Dustin said.

Dustin said his fiancée Heather and her family have shown unwavering support.

“From the moment of the accident, everything else was put on hold,” he said. “She focused on being there for me and my family.”

Dustin said the dozens of relatives and friends who were in Mexico for the wedding were instrumental in allowing Theresa to receive the best possible care.

“Everyone in Cancun was contributing in some way at all times,” he said. “Seeing all of the love and support — as well as the coming together as a group — was something infinitely more powerful than anything a wedding could have given me.”

After everything they’ve been through, Dustin said the end goal of the entire experience is to have a wedding “do-over,” which, he said, “will have one special mother-son dance!”

Since Powell resident Theresa Pike suffered a massive brain hemorrhage on the morning of her son’s wedding in Cancun, friends and family have launched a fundraising effort to help with medical expenses.

Through the fundraising website GoFundMe, supporters contributed more than $25,000 over the weekend.

“It’s been truly heartwarming to see how many people care, not only by donating, but by calling and emailing to check on us and by sharing our story to spread awareness for my mom,” said Dustin Pike in an email to the Tribune. “We feel so encouraged by all the well wishes and positive energy coming our way from family and friends in Powell and all over the world.”

To donate online, visit www.gofundme.com/hmvwpk. More updates can be found on the Facebook page www.facebook.com/HelpTheresaDance and by using the hashtag #helptheresadance on social media sites.

Since Medicare was not accepted at the hospital in Mexico, Theresa’s husband, Jim, and other family members had to max out their credit cards as the hospital demanded more money, Dustin said.

In less than four days after the Nov. 14 accident, they paid more than $50,000, then another $18,000 for Theresa to be airlifted to Houston.

Theresa is receiving excellent care in Houston, Dustin said, but she still faces months of treatment and rehabilitation.

Medicare covers 80 percent of her health care costs, but there is no out-of-pocket maximum for her medical bills. The Pike family is potentially facing hundreds of thousands of dollars in medical expenses and other costs as Theresa recovers.

Dustin and his fiancée, Heather, also received support from Southwest Airlines after having trouble changing their flight plans. Instead of flying to New York City, where they live, they flew to Houston to be with Theresa and their family.

Right now, the Pike family’s main fundraising efforts are through the GoFundMe website, an idea from their friends Kelly Akin, formerly of Powell, and his wife Karissa Tuthill-Akin.

An account has been set up at First Bank of Wyoming. The account is set up as Ryan Lawler for benefit of Theresa Pike. 

“We don’t have any fundraising events planned at this time, as we have been so busy just getting Theresa back to the U.S. and focusing on her recovery, but we would certainly welcome any ideas from friends in the community,” Dustin said.

— Tessa Schweigert

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