Sean C. Morgan
DeCima Lugo likes to make sure her children are independent and can take care of themselves, and one of them proved it last week when she saved Lugo’s life.
Lugo has reared many children, she said. “I have two sons that I gave birth to.”
And she’s adopted six others since then, she said. Right now, she is mother to three great-nieces, Clarise Baween “Ba,” 9; Celeste, 10; and Colette Lugo, 8.
Ba turned 9 on Dec. 30, and on Jan. 7, she made the 9-1-1 call that saved Lugo’s life.
“I thought I was fine,” Lugo said. “I was cold.”
It was a few minutes to 8 p.m., and she suggested the North River Drive-area family turn in for the night in the home her son built for her when she moved to Sweet Home in February 2002.
She lay down.
“Ba came in to kiss me good night because we always kiss good night,” Lugo said. “She knew I was out of it.”
“Your eyes were looking white, and you were shaking like you were struggling or something,” Celeste said. “Your eyes were going every direction.”
Lugo has taught the three girls what to do.
“If anything looks wrong, then you know it’s not right, and you call 9-1-1,” Colette said. In case of a fire, call 9-1-1, get out of the house and be safe.
“I’m hypoglycemic, and I had no idea,” Lugo said. Her blood sugar level had dipped to 30. A normal healthy blood sugar range is about 70 to 120.
“You know what that number means?” Lugo asked. “It means you’re not going to be here in 20 to 30 minutes.”
Sweet Home paramedics arrived and took Lugo to Samaritan Lebanon Community Hospital, and she was later transferred to Kaiser Sunnyside in the Portland area.
“If I didn’t do it, I wouldn’t have saved mom’s life,” Ba said.
She said it was “100 percent scarier than a scary movie.”
Celeste said it was “1,000 percent” more.
Lugo said she is 70-plus years old, “and so the three girls have got to be ready to be independent and use their heads.”
Lugo, of Iowa-Omaha Native American descent, said she is trying to make sure the girls have every advantage they’ll need. That means teaching them what to do as well as setting up their educations – the tribe will put them through college.
She wants them to learn to use their heads, she said.
And they did.
It is important for parents to teach their children what to do in emergencies, have a plan laid out in case of fires, for example. They need to know how to use the phone.
“They knew that, really, before they knew how to count because I realize how old I am,” Lugo said.
In her case it saved her life, and she is proud of Ba’s reaction.
“She’s a brave little girl,” Lugo said.