Local doctor works to reunite patient with her children after months-long separation

POCATELLO — A mother has been stuck in a hospital for months while her children await her arrival at their out-of-state home. One of the doctors on her care team is working to get her back to them.

Britnay Campbell-Martin has been in Portneuf Medical Center since Nov. 7, when she experienced a life-threatening car crash as a passenger. During her entire treatment, she’s been separated from Tabryis and Braylon, her 5-year-old and 1-year-old sons, while her brothers and grandmother care for them in Texas City, Texas.

“Eventually I woke up, and I thank God because I have two boys and I don’t want to leave them,” Campbell-Martin said. “I’ve been doing whatever it is I have to do, just so I can get to them.”

Campbell-Martin was in Soda Springs for a project with local company Zachry Industrial Inc., which she was a temporary employee with. The project was scheduled to only last three weeks.

“We were soon gonna leave a day or two after, but then we got into the accident,” Campbell-Martin said.

Campbell-Martin was riding with her cousin, Kiara Cooper, when they got into a head-on collision with another vehicle.

“I thought it was a dream that I woke up here. But no, it was real,” Campbell-Martin said.

Dr. Fahim Rahim, a doctor of nephrology on her care team, said that she was airlifted into Portneuf Medical Center with life-threatening injuries.

“The chances of survival were pretty slim,” Rahim said.

Rahim got involved because they needed to get Campbell-Martin’s blood pressure up.

“We realized we got to give her all that blood, all the fluid, just to bring a blood pressure up which was not measurable,” Rahim said. After that, they needed dialysis to clean her blood.

Despite the odds, Campbell-Martin is on the path to recovery, but Cooper and the other driver, Timothy Swanson, of Bancroft, perished in the crash.

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Campbell-Martin has missed Cooper.

“I don’t have the story that doesn’t involve my cousin because we’ve always been together,” Campbell-Martin said.

As soon as Campbell-Martin’s mother, Vicki Martin, heard about the crash, she dropped everything and came to Pocatello to be with her. Martin remains with Campbell-Martin in Pocatello.

As Campbell-Martin has progressed further on her journey to recovery, Rahim is advocating that she be reunited with her children and the rest of her family.

“As healthcare providers, it’s very easy for us to forget the bigger picture. For us, every patient at some point becomes a room number, and we come every day and we do the same thing,” Rahim said. “Sometimes we have to step back and think about, ‘What would I want if I was in a position where I was a dad stuck in hospital wanting to see my kids?'”

Early on while Campbell-Martin was in the hospital, the time came for her to renew her benefits with her insurance provider, Texas Medicaid. She was fighting for her life at the time, and didn’t renew her benefits, so they expired.

Campbell-Martin did the paperwork to get herself covered through Medicaid again but still has not been reinstated. Because of this, Portneuf Medical Center hasn’t been able to transfer her to a hospital in Texas.

EastIdahoNews.com reached out to the Texas Department of State Health Services, but has not received a response.

Rahim’s goal is to mobilize the healthcare system and use his connections to not only get Campbell-Martin home, but make sure she has medical care when she gets there.

They’ve set a goal to have her back in Texas by March 14. This may seem ambitious, but Rahim has utilized his professional connections built up over a long career in healthcare to make arrangements for her care.

But even with those connections, achieving this is a massive undertaking.

“To mobilize all those big aspects of care and coordinate everybody together is a colossal movement,” Rahim said.

For Campbell-Martin to get home by that date, it’s going to require that people do their jobs quickly and efficiently.

“For me it’s get up in the morning, make 20 phone calls to make sure everybody’s on top of their game,” Rahim said.

The JRM Foundation for Humanity, Rahim’s charitable organization, has started a GoFundMe campaign that will help Campbell-Martin and Martin with their expenses once they get home.

While Campbell-Martin has hope, it’s hard for her to believe that she’ll return home. She says there have been times when she’s felt like she’ll never make it back.

During those times when Campbell-Martin feels hopeless, it helps her to talk to her oldest son.

Whenever Campbell-Martin talks to Tabryis, he tells her, “‘I miss you. You’re beautiful. You’re cute.’ Or he says something funny. And he always says, ‘I love you.’ And I need to hurry up and come back and bring some toys,” she said.

Campbell-Martin told EastIdahoNews.com what she’s going to do first thing when she gets back to Texas.

“Hug and kiss my babies,” Campbell-Martin said. “That’s if my brothers don’t come and hug and kiss me first.”

She looked over at the snowy weather outside the hospital, knowing it will be much warmer when she’s finally home.

“I’m gonna bring my babies outside,” Campbell-Martin said.