Beautiful Jeanette was born Sept 1, 1948 to the late Louise J. Alexander and Ralph Victor Carr, Sr. Jeanette mostly grew up in Alexandria, VA but traveled and lived periodically in her mother's home town of Atlantic City, NJ. She loved to sing and had a beautiful voice. She loved the beach and people. She was always helping someone and had a heart of gold. On May 19, 1972 she married Charles Edward Harris, Sr. of Alexandria, VA. From this union 3 children were born; Mona Michelle Harris and Charles Edward Harris, Jr., both of Alexandria, VA, Michael Harris, born and died Aug 1978. In the 1980's she took custody of Sharwnice Day and she became a part of the Harris family. Jeanette's father Ralph died January 1, 1966 on his way to a New Year's Eve party with his brother. After pulling up to get his brother, the family heard a horn that wouldn't stop. Ralph was slumped over the wheel dead from a heart attack at the age of 46. She lost her mother to Lou Gherig's disease on Oct. 2, 1991 at the age of 72. Jeanette became ill in February of 2009 from a sore on her leg. She spent 1 week in Fairfax hospital and was released but just "couldn't get herself together" as she kept putting it. She ran her own daycare at home so like always she went to pick up the kids from school in her minivan on Friday Feb 27th. On Sunday March 1st around 11:30am Charles came home and found Jeanette sitting in the hallway on the floor complaining of leg pains and asking for help. He called 911 and then his daughter. It took their daughter 4 minutes to get to their house upon which the EMTs were there but not speedy in getting Jeanette out of the house and to the hospital right across the street. She kept saying "help me" and grabbing the sleeve of the tech. He kept telling her to just breathe and gave her oxygen. After 20 minutes of sitting outside, she was taken to the ER and her daughter, son and husband went with her. The EMT said it sounded as if she had kidney stones. The daughter disbelieved him and was worried. Charles was wisked away to registration and Mona and Eddie stayed with Jeanette. For almost an hour she asked for help and no staff helped her. Her daughter watched as the nurses talked about their weekends and what was going on finally getting upset and demanding assistance. The EMTs were so sloppy they almost dropped Jeanette trying to put her on the hospital girney and Charles Jr. (Eddie as he's called) had to lift her. The EMT knocked over the oxygen tank and dislodged the tubing to the mask. Jeanette was in shock and had been since she was at home but the EMTs never treated her for it nor did the ER staff. After giving up on asking for help she just held her daughters hand until she began to lose consciousness. Her daughter demanded that the doctor help her mother but he refused to even look at her folding his arms and getting in her daughter's face defiantly. When a nurse roused Jeanette in the chest to awake her, she opened her eyes wide, looked at her daughter then up at the nurse and contorted as if in horrible pain. Her mouth opened wide but no sound came out and she rolled over on her side. Mona screamed to the doctor to please look at her mother even manuevering herself so that he would have to face her. Finally he looked at Jeanette and said "She's just having a seizure." in the most nonchalant way. She told him that was NOT normal. Jeanette lost consciousness again and never woke up. Security was called on the daughter and the ER staff finally started moving but it was too late. They shocked Jeanette several times, shot her up with ephedrine and other drugs trying to revive her. They tried CPR but to no avail. After pronouncing her dead Mona decided to ask the doctor to remove the tubing from her mother's mouth so that they could grieve her properly. The formerly rude doctor said, "I'm SO sorry that happened, I really am...I mean, you saw us right? You saw us, we were doing everything we could...you saw us right??" Less than 15 minutes later a nurse came in and demanded that Charles sign a waiver of autopsy stating insurance wouldn't cover it and it costs $5k. The family questioned this statement and realized they had no money to cover it so he signed. Their daughter is still trying to find a lawyer to take a negligence/wrongful death suit against the staff and hospital before the statute of limitations runs out 3/1/11.
*UPDATE!! After 2 years of searching for lawyers, being hospitalized and returning to work, Mona finally was able to get the money and go file a formal complaint in Alexandria's Circuit Court on none other than 3/1/11!!! After retrieving records from the hospital for the day Jeanette passed away, the records speak for themselves. We are praying for justice for Jeanette and all other victims of medical negligence!!!