(S28) PT 5 - Helping Out

[Oles]

The Oles family spends plenty of time working with charities to help their communities, doing all the normal expected duties of a major public figure. They do all the normal things, hospital visits, make a wish, toys for tots, everything you can think of that would be focused on helping out the many people who need it. However, the one charity that is near and dear to the Oles family is the American Blood Clot Association. This association focuses on helping raise awareness around blood clots, a problem that can cause issues for everyone while many don’t really know the warning symptoms and can easily overlook it. The Oles family got involved when Tyler Oles SR was young, well before his playing days, when his mom passed away from a pulmonary embolism that could have been prevented. She had presented the warning signs of a blood clot and had even been to the doctor a week before her death due to a concerning cough and concerning symptoms, when the doctor diagnosed her with bronchitis, and sent her on her way. Nothing really changed and then a normal day turned into chaos for the family, and you never expect to wake up and one day lose your mother to something that was extremely preventable. Ever since they have made it a major effort to push awareness to people, so they know what the warning signs are and what to look out for, in the hopes that someone else doesn’t lose out on a member of their family to something that is easily preventable. (262 words)

Out of Character: While the characters may be fictional, the story is not, when I was 15 I lost my mom to a pulmonary embolism, we were told that later on that it was easy to prevent and with the correct diagnosis she would have survived, but it didn’t work like that. It’s been almost 10 years and I can still remember what happened that day very vividly, whoever is reading this, please make sure you know what to look out for. Blood clots happen and can be helped, but without the knowledge of their symptoms and how they feel they can be worrisome and deadly. I never expected to wake up to an ambulance outside my house, my dad waking me up and telling me everyone was going to the hospital except for me, and I’ll never forget my brother calling me and telling me that she was gone. If you’re worried about it, ask your doctor about it, it never hurts to have the knowledge of what it may feel like.