Re: The dead children thread
Re: The dead children thread
Eve Samples: Former Martin County resident recovering from swine flu after losing baby
By
Eve Samples (
Contact)
Originally published
05:44 p.m., September 16, 2009
Updated 05:44 p.m., September 16, 2009
Aubrey Opdyke, 27, rests in her bed with daughter Hope, 4, at Kindred Hospital in Riviera Beach on Wednesday afternoon. Opdyke, a South Fork High School graduate, has been at Kindred, a long-term acute care facility for a week, recovering from the swine flu. Prior to coming to Kindred, Opdyke was in a different hospital for nine weeks and put into a medically induced coma. She is unsure how much longer she will need to stay at Kindred before returning home.
RIVIERA BEACH — RIVIERA BEACH — The veil of the coma was slowly lifting, and an image kept appearing before Aubrey Opdyke.
It was a dog. A white dog.
It wasn’t menacing or rowdy. It stood placidly in her hospital room as she drifted in and out of consciousness.
It may have been a dream. Maybe a hallucination.
Aubrey isn’t sure.
Whatever it was, it stayed there as the 27-year-old former Martin County resident regained focus on her world — a world that had dramatically changed since she went to the emergency room in early July with flu symptoms.
From the Riviera Beach hospital where she is now recovering, Aubrey explained how she feels like she gained and lost so much during the more than three weeks she spent in coma battling the swine flu, also known as H1N1 virus.
She gained a deep understanding of the commitment of her friends and extended family. They rallied around her, even when doctors were bracing them for the worst. They planned fundraisers and prayed at her parents’ church, First United Methodist Church of Hobe Sound. They visited her whenever they could, even though she didn’t know they were there.
But, as she lay in the coma, Aubrey also lost what would have been the newest member of her family: little Parker Christine, who doctors delivered from her belly during an emergency surgery July 18.
The baby, born more than two months before her due date, lived a matter of minutes. Aubrey, who was unconscious, never got to see her.
“I guess God needed Parker. We needed Aubrey,” said Aubrey’s mother, Joanne Felker of Stuart.
When Aubrey awoke from her coma, she sensed that her baby was gone.
“I kind of had a feeling because no one was saying anything,” she recalled.
Straining her weak voice, she asked her husband, Bryan, about it.
He told her: “She didn’t make it.”
Eventually, Aubrey will watch a video of the tiny newborn with the long eyelashes — but not yet.
She has a challenging recovery ahead of her and, for now, she needs to conserve her energy for it.
Because she was immobile for several weeks, her muscles have atrophied.
She can’t walk without help. She can’t write with a pen or pencil. She can’t make a fist.
Her voice remains shaky, and she was still hooked up to a ventilator this week.
Physical therapy is painful and tiring, but the therapists are encouraging. Aubrey, a South Fork High School graduate, was a competitive swimmer and weight-lifter. Her background in sports is helping her now, as she devotes about 30 minutes every day to teaching her muscles how to move again.
When she does regain her strength, there is so much she wants to do.
The 10 weeks she has lived away from her 4-year-old daughter, Hope, feel like an eternity.
Since Aubrey was admitted to the hospital, Hope has learned how to swim. She has started pre-Kindergarten in Stuart, where Felker is caring for her.
“I want to do the things we always put off,” Aubrey said. “Like we want to go to Sea World.”
Her goal is to be out of the hospital in time for Hope’s birthday on Nov. 4.
Aubrey and her family haven’t told the little girl yet that her sister, Parker, didn’t make it.
They don’t want her to worry that her mommy might not come home either.
In time, they will explain it to her.
And, in time, Aubrey will return to her West Palm Beach townhouse to resume life with her husband, her daughter, her rat terrier, her two cats and two turtles.
She’s already dreaming about plans for the holidays.
“I’m looking forward to a lot of things,” she said.
Yes, there will be the complications of real life to deal with. Money is tight, and it’s unclear how much Aubrey’s hospital bills will cost the family.
Aubrey, who had been working as a waitress before she got sick, hasn’t collected an income for more than two months. Bryan, who took a leave of absence from his UPS job to be at Aubrey’s side while she was in a coma, has returned to work part time.
Aubrey’s former co-workers at Helping People Succeed in Stuart have collected about $1,300 to help the family get by. They’re continuing to accept donations from people who want to help.
But the family isn’t fretting too much about money. Mainly they’re grateful that Aubrey defied her prognosis and is recovering so well.
“We’re just thankful,” Felker said. “Very thankful.”:tiphat:
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