[Lyndsay]

My 14 year old daughter, Alivia, attempted suicide on Tuesday Oct 23, 2018. I had to work that evening so I wasn’t home when she got home from school. I got home about 740-745pm, Alivia cane up to me and gave me a hug and a kiss. We talked for a little bit, then she went to the bathroom, came and kissed me goodnight and she went to bed about 8pm. (She’s always in bed by 8pm by her own choosing.)

About 810, she calls for me and tells me I need to bring her to the hospital Bc she just took a bottle of Benadryl. BENADRYL, y’all. I asked her how many pills and she said all of them in a brand new bottle. 100 pills. I asked her where the bottle was and she told me, I got the bottle and called poison control to see what I needed to do before I brought her to the ER. He said nothing, bring her immediately it is a lethal dose and he was calling the ER ahead of me so they knew to be expecting us.

On the 20 min drive there, I am talking to her and asking her why and trying to keep her awake and alert. My 17yo daughter, Rhesa, was with us. By the time we got to the ER, Alivia could barely walk. We went in, I signed her in and told the nurse that poison control called ahead. We still had to wait for about 10 min before she was triaged. By that time, her speech was slurring. Her pulse was 143 and blood pressure about 145/95.

We got sent back to the next triage part and they asked what happened and I told them. So they brought us back to a room. By that time she could no longer speak and couldn’t follow simple commands. The nurse & dr came in and got an IV started and was trying to get her to drink some activated charcoal.

She was starting to fight the nurses Bc she didn’t understand what was happening. Her pulse was now 165, BP was about 160/110. It was now about 9-915pm. She wouldn’t swallow for the nurse so I tried to get her to do it. I managed to get her to take a small sip, then she grabbed my hand, looked at me and started having a seizure. I started yelling for help, Rhesa started yelling and ran out the room screaming for someone. A bunch of nurses & doctors came in and started giving her Ativan and trying to get her to stop seizing.

It felt like hours, but was probably 5 min or so until it stopped. Or so I thought. Rhesa called a friend to come and get her. I called my mom and she called my dad to come to the hospital to be with him. Alivia was still having small seizures and fighting everyone. They had to restrain her. She couldn’t swallow so they put a NG tube down her nose to give her the activated charcoal.

The ER then said they were transferring her to Children’s Hospital in New Orleans. They wanted to med flight her, but the weather was to bad. By now the dr thought the best thing was to put her into a coma and on a ventilator. Her oxygen stats kept plummeting, her pulse was now 193 and her BP was around 170/120.

She was at stroke levels and heart attack levels. The dr told me that if she wouldn’t have told me what she did as soon as she did, she would have had the seizure at home and died. The dr kept giving her more Ativan to get her to stop seizing and it was not working. They finally gave her Versed & Ketamine along with the Ativan and she finally stopped having seizures.

Her pulse and BP finally went back within normal ranges. High end of normal, but normal. She had seizure activity for about 3 hours. She was put into ICU. She had 2 IVs, a catheter, ventilator, NG tube, plus other wires checking her heart, oxygen levels, etc etc. Wednesday they took her off one of the sedation meds to see if she knew what was going on. She was able to breathe on her own and she could follow commands so they took her off all the sedation meds. She was hallucinating now.

The dr said the hallucinations were from the Benadryl and could possibly last weeks and could come and go for those weeks. She had a CT scan to check for strokes, luckily she didn’t have one. Blood work done said her kidney & liver functions were messed up but they have a good chance of functioning normally and we will have to get them checked every few months.

She was still having a hard time keeping her Oxygen levels up so she had to be on oxygen. And she was still having tremors from seizure activity. Thursday Oct 25th, she was moved to a reg room. And on Friday she was able to come completely off the oxygen, she had aspiration pneumonia, and she was moved to a psych unit.

On Friday Nov 2, 2018, Alivia was able to come home. She is seeing a therapist and a psychiatrist. She is currently doing good. She is coming to terms with what she did, how she feels about the attempt, and what she put us, her family, through.

We have a long road ahead of us, but with meds, counseling, Faith, and family we are supporting her and will be here for her.

The reason? Bullying at school. Again. Almost 3 years of it. My daughter had been called names, threatened, cyber bullied, physically assaulted and sexually assaulted at school. I had reported it and nothing was done. She reported it and nothing was done except a meeting with the bully and the bully told “don’t do it again.” So much for zero tolerance huh? I pressed charges against the girl that attacked her.

The guy that was sexually assaulting her would come up behind her in the hallway in between classes and grab her ass, boobs & vagina. The principal said “she’s too short, we can’t see it on camera so it must not be happening.” She didn’t know the kid, she was afraid to go to school.

The day she attempted it, she just couldn’t take any more of it. Between the bullying and her depression this is the result.

She’s now homeschooled. The pic of her in the red dress was taken 2 weeks before she attempted.

[SidneyJeanFail]

people piss me off... I'm so sorry this happened to your daughter.. I'm glad she's home schooled now. And away from these assholes.. She is absolutely beautiful! Keep fighting sweetie. Don't let hate win

[SimoneFlen']

Wow, Lyndsay, you're very brave sharing your story here. I'm so sorry that your little girl went through this. I can't even begin to imagine what you were feeling when this was going on.

The school should be held responsible for failing to protect Alivia. No child should think that ending their life is the only solution.

[kellyhound]

Teens are very vulnerable to suffer from bullying and that's a sad thing. More sadder is the school's reaction
This is the ultimate nightmare for a parent but you can tell her she's a damn fine lady and that dress looks good on her and hopefully she and the rest of the family can find the strength to overcome this sad period in life. Hope the counceling helps her in seeing that killing yourself is not the answer.
Wish the bullies could read this story as most of the time they have no clue what consequences their actions have.

[flangemanager]

It can't have been easy sharing that. I wish you and your family the best for the future.

[Pink_spyder]

Originally Posted by kellyhound ↗

Wish the bullies could read this story as most of the time they have no clue what consequences their actions have.

For once I have to disagree with you, Kell.
Unfortunately most bullies do know what the consequences can be-the sad fact of the matter is that they don't care.
Look at what bullies did to Amanda Todd, and then how it was handled by a large percentage of the public when her story got out-she was turned into a joke, a laughingstock and then a fukkin meme...

I was a teen in the 80's, and we handled bullies quite differently.
We didn't "scold" them, try to make them see the "error of their ways" or try to sue them-because none of that works, and everybody knows that.

We took the bullying til we couldn't take it anymore, then we did one of two things-crumpled, or struck back.

The only way to deal with these animals is to shut them down hard.

My bully terrorized me for over a year until one day I just couldn't take it anymore, and pulled a broken bottle on her behind the school. I told her if she messed with me again I would cut her face off her skull and eat it.
She never bothered me again.

Get this beautiful girl some self-defense lessons immediately.
Teach her to stand up for herself. Let her know that she has every right to turn around and punch the fucker who's groping her right in the throat and drop him like a sack of shit.

After all, she can't hide at home forever.
I know you love her, mom, but you need to empower her, not handicap her...

[wujuan]

i am so sorry. i did this exact thing. literally the exact thing (benedryl, saying i need to go to hospital) the pain a parent feels during and after is incredible. i am truly truly sorry. i'm glad everything is better. give her a hug for me. {{hugs}}

[Caf002]

Thank you for sharing your daughters struggle and I am so glad that she made it through. I believe that people who bully have self esteem issues and they do these tactics to make themselves feel better about themselves. In fact, they are just low lives who will never make anything out of themselves. I hope your beautiful daughter grows in strength and wisdom and shows these people what she is really made of!

[jesse]

I was bullied in school. Years of it. Many children were bullied in school when I was growing up. I was bullied out of school. The same kids lived in my neighborhood and would chase me on my bike. I was never touched, though. And I never considered suicide.

THAT time was in the 50s and 60s.

Children today are meaner. More cruel. Evil monsters. This is what parents today are raising. Children who think nothing of touching another child in a way that is so inappropriate!

The PARENTS are at fault! They should be punished as well as the abusing child! I have no doubt the parents are just adult bullies.

What has happened to our society? One thing is children have not been taught compassion. They have not been taught modesty. Manners. Respect. And this goes back a few generations.

If something doesn't change quickly, this will escalate. It already has.

[Davis916]

I pray for your daughters complete recovery and strength for your family. I have known 3 people who did not make it after Benedryl overdose. I hope whatever caused her to do this can be resolved as well. There are many people who would love to help her, all you need to do is ask for the help.