Kristen Tavares had given birth just a few months ago and had her hands full caring for her new baby and his big brother before she went to Dr. John D. Stover’s office in Hilo to have her wisdom teeth pulled.
She has yet to wake up. Now her family members are struggling to take care of the boys and fly back and forth from Hilo to Kahului to be by her side at Maui Memorial Medical Center, where she was flown for treatment.
"She went into cardiac arrest and is now in a coma," her sister, Jolena Tavares, wrote in a recent appeal on gofundme.com. "We are all praying so hard for her to come back home. We know things won’t be the same for her, but we will never give up hope."
Kristen Tavares, 24, was a trained caregiver herself, having studied to become a certified nurse assistant at Sweetwater Health Education in Hilo. On Friday her friends and supporters will hold a car wash at the school to raise money to help her and her family.
The car wash will run from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Sweetwater’s parking lot, at 357 Waianuenue Ave. in Hilo.
"I know this fundraiser will be big," said Anela Libron, the school’s secretary, who is organizing the event and has known Tavares since childhood. "There are so many people that want to help and donate."
"She was full of life — happy, healthy and loved her kids," Libron said.
Stover, the oral surgeon and dentist who treated Tavares, informed colleagues that Friday was his last day of work. The state is investigating 12 complaints filed against him for his work both as a doctor and a dentist, many of them filed after Tavares’ case came to light.
Tavares’ partner, Chauncey Prudencio, organized friends and supporters to picket at Stover’s Cosmetic Centers of Hawaii office and hold signs on Hilo’s bay front to publicize the case and call for Stover’s license to be revoked.
Linda Silva, owner of Sweetwater Health Education, taught the class Tavares took several years ago to become a nurse assistant and described her as "real sweet, kind of quiet, at least in class," and good with the seniors at the nursing home.
"She is a young girl, with her whole life ahead of her, a trained caregiver," Silva said. "When I first heard this and saw her picture, I thought, ‘Oh, my God, that’s Kristen!’ Of course, it just makes me absolutely sick."
"What makes me even more sick is there are other complaints that suggest that this isn’t a rare, isolated fluke of medicine," she added. "Though maybe it was. Maybe it was."
