http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/ke...flu-victim-asked/story-e6frf7jo-1225782529013
Keep talking to my baby if I can't, swine flu victim asked
* Evonne Barry
* From: Herald Sun
* Sun Oct 04 00:00:00 EST 2009 Sun Oct 04 00:00:00 EST 2009
BRAVE mother Alison Stuart died battling swine flu only 68 minutes after giving birth to her fourth child.
Nine-week-old Jemma has been called Alison's final "gift of love" by her grieving family, offering much-needed hope amid their heartache.
Despite being born 13 weeks early - delivered by emergency caesarean weighing only 972g - Jemma is now thriving.
But when her proud father, Conway Stuart, takes her home later this month, it will be with mixed emotions.
His wife, Alison, who would have celebrated her 39th birthday today, died of respiratory failure in a Melbourne hospital nine days after falling ill.
A team of 15 specialists was unable to save the former nurse, who tested positive to the H1N1 influenza virus and also had serious heart problems, after her condition deteriorated on July 23.
However, Alison's tight-knit family - including her husband, mother Sue Beament and sisters Simone Kirsch and Jacqui Raymond -- has been full of praise for the Monash Medical Centre doctors and nurses who safely delivered Alison's extremely premature girl.
Her mother's spirit - in the form of a handmade book placed beside her cot - has been watching over Jemma as she has grown from a fragile premature newborn to a healthy baby.
Alison's youngest sister, Mrs Raymond, made the book - called My Mummy - to honour Alison's memory.
"It was something to help all of us, but what I really wanted was for Jemma to have some sense of her mum being present with her all the time," Mrs Raymond said.
"And I wanted the staff to get some sense of who her mum was, and where Jemma came from."
In less than three weeks, doctors say, Jemma will be home with her sisters: Annalise, who is Conway and Alison's two-year-old daughter; Laura, Alison's 10-year-old daughter from a previous marriage; and Tiana, Conway's 10-year-old daughter from a previous relationship.
But the joy of Jemma's arrival cannot erase the heartache of the Stuart and Beament families.
"It's a two-edged sword cutting through you; it's slicing joy and grief," Mrs Beament said.
"We are so very grateful to have Jemma. When you are holding Jemma, you are holding a connection, a tie, a cord with Alison. But then each time you put her down, it's reality again."
Mrs Beament expects that reality to hit hardest when her new granddaughter goes home.
"We can't pretend it's a happy homecoming," she said.
"It's great Jemma is coming home. But at the same time, we are bringing a baby home without her mum."
Alison was almost 26 weeks into her pregnancy when she began having trouble breathing.
Admitted to Box Hill Hospital for one night, the nurse was sent home the following day when she appeared to have recovered.
However, when she felt unwell again the next day, Alison called herself an ambulance. She was readmitted to Box Hill Hospital, where she spent three days before her condition again worsened and she was put into an induced coma.
Moments before, on that morning of July 19, Alison spoke her final words - "I love you" - to her husband Conway and sister Jacqui.
Given Alison's pregnancy, and her life-long heart condition, she was transferred to Monash Medical Centre for more specialised care.
Her weakened heart and lungs, combined with her H1N1 diagnosis, quickly conspired against Alison's recovery.
She spent the next four days in a coma, before Mr Stuart witnessed the birth of his third child, and the death of his wife, almost simultaneously.
Dr Craig Walker, medical director of Monash Medical Centre's intensive care unit, said the battle to save Alison was "about as intense as it gets".
More than two months later, Mr Stuart still struggles to describe the emotional extremes.
"I just don't know how to put it into words," Mr Stuart said.
"The first things I noticed about Jemma were her fingers and toes -- they were just like Alison's. She was so beautiful, just like Alison."
As some of the best medical minds in Australia worked on Alison, her sister and second "birthing partner", Mrs Raymond, was also there offering support.
"Watching my sister die was agony," Mrs Raymond said.
"It was hard, but I put that aside to try to support Conway, who was losing his wife.
"We all felt that absolute anguish. It was crushing.
"And then there was the agony of watching my mum and dad see their cherished daughter die."
Mrs Raymond says Alison, who survived several days longer than expected, fought to the very end. The family was called in to say "goodbye" on three separate occasions.
"She hung on for Jemma, we are absolutely sure of that," Mrs Raymond said.
Alison's dramatic decline coincided with her parents' first overseas holiday.
John and Sue Beament were in London when they learnt their eldest daughter was seriously ill in hospital.
They immediately booked the first available flight home, but the harrowing day-long plane trip home took up precious time.
"It took forever and we were terrified," Mrs Beament said.
"We knew (how serious it was), we knew."
Alison's beloved children never left her thoughts, as was proved by the note she scribbled before losing consciousness.
"She wrote, 'Keep talking to baby and rub my tummy. Please keep talking to my baby. And wriggle my toes'. Alison used to get cold toes," Mrs Beament explained.
"One of the very last things Alison said to Simone was, 'Please take care of my children'."
Mrs Kirsch, who with her parents and sister has promised to help Mr Stuart raise Alison's children, said their already close family was pulling together even more. They even came up with Jemma's name together.
Body: "Our passion is that Alison's kids have as much love and care as we can give them," Mrs Kirsch said.
Doctors have concluded several factors contributed to Alison's death -- respiratory failure, H1N1-related pneumonia and her heart defect, with pregnancy an added complication. Now her family wants to warn people against complacency about swine flu.
"The media is saying swine flu isn't that bad, and it probably isn't, but there is a different bracket of people dying with swine flu," Mrs Kirsch said.
Though Alison's heart condition -- a complicated combination of defects called Fallot's tetralogy -- cast a constant shadow on her health, it was never allowed to dictate her life.
"She lived life at 110 per cent, even though her heart capacity was only 70 or 80 per cent," Mrs Beament said.
At the age of five, Alison had open-heart surgery at the Royal Children's Hospital to repair a "hole in her heart", which set the path for her nursing career.
"She wanted to be a nurse from a tiny age, ever since she was in the Royal Children's Hospital," Mrs Beament said.
"She never deviated."
After training at Monash University and working at Monash Medical Centre, Alison's career also included several months volunteer nursing in Nepal and work in Thailand and Vanuatu.
Mrs Beament said her daughter's biggest priority was family and motherhood.
"Alison becoming a mother was to see her dreams come true," she said.
Heartache followed the birth of Alison's first child 12 years ago. Son Joshua was only 18 days old when he died in Monash Medical Centre from complications of his premature birth.
"Alison came home from the hospital without her first-born son," Mrs Kirsch said.
"That was heartbreaking for her. And now her baby is coming home, without her."
However, Mr Stuart said his wife would live on through the family she left behind.
"Alison touched my life with a love that will last a lifetime," he said. "I loved her spontaneity. You never did know what she was going to do next. She never did either.
"She always put her family first and she was the piece that made our family complete."
Keep talking to my baby if I can't, swine flu victim asked
* Evonne Barry
* From: Herald Sun
* Sun Oct 04 00:00:00 EST 2009 Sun Oct 04 00:00:00 EST 2009
BRAVE mother Alison Stuart died battling swine flu only 68 minutes after giving birth to her fourth child.
Nine-week-old Jemma has been called Alison's final "gift of love" by her grieving family, offering much-needed hope amid their heartache.
Despite being born 13 weeks early - delivered by emergency caesarean weighing only 972g - Jemma is now thriving.
But when her proud father, Conway Stuart, takes her home later this month, it will be with mixed emotions.
His wife, Alison, who would have celebrated her 39th birthday today, died of respiratory failure in a Melbourne hospital nine days after falling ill.
A team of 15 specialists was unable to save the former nurse, who tested positive to the H1N1 influenza virus and also had serious heart problems, after her condition deteriorated on July 23.
However, Alison's tight-knit family - including her husband, mother Sue Beament and sisters Simone Kirsch and Jacqui Raymond -- has been full of praise for the Monash Medical Centre doctors and nurses who safely delivered Alison's extremely premature girl.
Her mother's spirit - in the form of a handmade book placed beside her cot - has been watching over Jemma as she has grown from a fragile premature newborn to a healthy baby.
Alison's youngest sister, Mrs Raymond, made the book - called My Mummy - to honour Alison's memory.
"It was something to help all of us, but what I really wanted was for Jemma to have some sense of her mum being present with her all the time," Mrs Raymond said.
"And I wanted the staff to get some sense of who her mum was, and where Jemma came from."
In less than three weeks, doctors say, Jemma will be home with her sisters: Annalise, who is Conway and Alison's two-year-old daughter; Laura, Alison's 10-year-old daughter from a previous marriage; and Tiana, Conway's 10-year-old daughter from a previous relationship.
But the joy of Jemma's arrival cannot erase the heartache of the Stuart and Beament families.
"It's a two-edged sword cutting through you; it's slicing joy and grief," Mrs Beament said.
"We are so very grateful to have Jemma. When you are holding Jemma, you are holding a connection, a tie, a cord with Alison. But then each time you put her down, it's reality again."
Mrs Beament expects that reality to hit hardest when her new granddaughter goes home.
"We can't pretend it's a happy homecoming," she said.
"It's great Jemma is coming home. But at the same time, we are bringing a baby home without her mum."
Alison was almost 26 weeks into her pregnancy when she began having trouble breathing.
Admitted to Box Hill Hospital for one night, the nurse was sent home the following day when she appeared to have recovered.
However, when she felt unwell again the next day, Alison called herself an ambulance. She was readmitted to Box Hill Hospital, where she spent three days before her condition again worsened and she was put into an induced coma.
Moments before, on that morning of July 19, Alison spoke her final words - "I love you" - to her husband Conway and sister Jacqui.
Given Alison's pregnancy, and her life-long heart condition, she was transferred to Monash Medical Centre for more specialised care.
Her weakened heart and lungs, combined with her H1N1 diagnosis, quickly conspired against Alison's recovery.
She spent the next four days in a coma, before Mr Stuart witnessed the birth of his third child, and the death of his wife, almost simultaneously.
Dr Craig Walker, medical director of Monash Medical Centre's intensive care unit, said the battle to save Alison was "about as intense as it gets".
More than two months later, Mr Stuart still struggles to describe the emotional extremes.
"I just don't know how to put it into words," Mr Stuart said.
"The first things I noticed about Jemma were her fingers and toes -- they were just like Alison's. She was so beautiful, just like Alison."
As some of the best medical minds in Australia worked on Alison, her sister and second "birthing partner", Mrs Raymond, was also there offering support.
"Watching my sister die was agony," Mrs Raymond said.
"It was hard, but I put that aside to try to support Conway, who was losing his wife.
"We all felt that absolute anguish. It was crushing.
"And then there was the agony of watching my mum and dad see their cherished daughter die."
Mrs Raymond says Alison, who survived several days longer than expected, fought to the very end. The family was called in to say "goodbye" on three separate occasions.
"She hung on for Jemma, we are absolutely sure of that," Mrs Raymond said.
Alison's dramatic decline coincided with her parents' first overseas holiday.
John and Sue Beament were in London when they learnt their eldest daughter was seriously ill in hospital.
They immediately booked the first available flight home, but the harrowing day-long plane trip home took up precious time.
"It took forever and we were terrified," Mrs Beament said.
"We knew (how serious it was), we knew."
Alison's beloved children never left her thoughts, as was proved by the note she scribbled before losing consciousness.
"She wrote, 'Keep talking to baby and rub my tummy. Please keep talking to my baby. And wriggle my toes'. Alison used to get cold toes," Mrs Beament explained.
"One of the very last things Alison said to Simone was, 'Please take care of my children'."
Mrs Kirsch, who with her parents and sister has promised to help Mr Stuart raise Alison's children, said their already close family was pulling together even more. They even came up with Jemma's name together.
Body: "Our passion is that Alison's kids have as much love and care as we can give them," Mrs Kirsch said.
Doctors have concluded several factors contributed to Alison's death -- respiratory failure, H1N1-related pneumonia and her heart defect, with pregnancy an added complication. Now her family wants to warn people against complacency about swine flu.
"The media is saying swine flu isn't that bad, and it probably isn't, but there is a different bracket of people dying with swine flu," Mrs Kirsch said.
Though Alison's heart condition -- a complicated combination of defects called Fallot's tetralogy -- cast a constant shadow on her health, it was never allowed to dictate her life.
"She lived life at 110 per cent, even though her heart capacity was only 70 or 80 per cent," Mrs Beament said.
At the age of five, Alison had open-heart surgery at the Royal Children's Hospital to repair a "hole in her heart", which set the path for her nursing career.
"She wanted to be a nurse from a tiny age, ever since she was in the Royal Children's Hospital," Mrs Beament said.
"She never deviated."
After training at Monash University and working at Monash Medical Centre, Alison's career also included several months volunteer nursing in Nepal and work in Thailand and Vanuatu.
Mrs Beament said her daughter's biggest priority was family and motherhood.
"Alison becoming a mother was to see her dreams come true," she said.
Heartache followed the birth of Alison's first child 12 years ago. Son Joshua was only 18 days old when he died in Monash Medical Centre from complications of his premature birth.
"Alison came home from the hospital without her first-born son," Mrs Kirsch said.
"That was heartbreaking for her. And now her baby is coming home, without her."
However, Mr Stuart said his wife would live on through the family she left behind.
"Alison touched my life with a love that will last a lifetime," he said. "I loved her spontaneity. You never did know what she was going to do next. She never did either.
"She always put her family first and she was the piece that made our family complete."