 |
| From Bambini |
Today the Bambini had their first visitor, our wonderful Dulla, Bendicte. To celebrate, Luca's umbilical cord stub fell off! As soon as I gave her Nico, he immediately recognized her and had an expression I just about caught in this picture.
Dulla is a Greek word for birth helper and describes someone who is present to support a woman giving birth. Bendicte worked with Barbara during labor, birth and while coming off the medication to help her with these difficult transitions. Each time she comes, the effect is clear.
During the first seven days we have tried to protect the bambini from any virus like flu and especially H1N1. I asked the nurse that taught our newborn class how concerned we should be about this and she recounted the story of her recent birth in which family members flew from South America to see her. She would not let them in the hospital for 48hrs until they were sure they had no symptoms. Which brings me to Athena.
One of my consultants daughter has moved out of ICU finally. Her name is Athena and she has a daughter. Athena is one of the unlucky people that caught H1N1 which rapidly developed into a life threatening condition in October last year. She has been in ICU in critical condition for FOUR MONTHS!
At this point, her right lung is destroyed and needs to be removed and she has difficulty breathing on her own. She has been on a feeding tube most of this this time and is so weak from the strongest anti-biotics know to man, that she cannot withstand the trauma of the operation needed to remove the right lung.
Her father John, estimates the cost so far at over $3m of which the insurance only pays a small part. By the time this is over they will all be financially ruined.
John has been blogging about her progress for months, which gave me the idea for this blog. At the end of December, Athena had the following to say:
- I feel like I just experienced a drug overdose that put me in a unconscious neurological state.
- My body feels broken and I can’t communicate with anyone how I feel.
- With the amount of blood samples taken from me on a daily basis, my body is having a hard time healing and allowing me to build up my energy. Remember, I’m sick and haven’t moved in months so my ability to do anything is limited.
- Please go easy removing/reducing the medication your using for my issues. I’m very sensitive to slight changes as my body is frail and so is my mind.
- I’m really scared as I have been places no one should have to go. When I’m able to communicate again, I will redefine the meaning of fear for you.
- I want to hold my little girl!
It was made very clear to us that pregnant women were at the highest risk for death because their immune system is compromised.
During this pregnancy, I was particularly concerned about this threat. The building we used to live in, had one door to the elevator for the whole building and everyone touched it everyday. The building was 10 minutes from one of the busiest airports in the world.
We began to listen to the health experts that advised people to use hand sanitizer frequently, especially after touching door handles, ATM machines, supermarket trolleys, menu's and money.
Once Barbara was pregnant and flu season began, we sanitized cell phones, keys, purse handles, credit cards anything that other people had touched.
During the later months, we cut down on visits, restaurants where we could not see the food prepared, and cinemas with lots of people.
I insisted that everyone use the hand sanitizer when visiting and while most people were more than happy, this did rub a few people the wrong way.
Last year (2007/2208), Barbara and I went out for dinner at christmas before we went up to Mammoth for a few days. We went to a nice restaurant in the Marina. The next day we both came down with a nasty cold. It was clear that someone in that kitchen had given us their cold. It's that easy.
If that had been this year, and that person gave her H1N1, the probability is very high that she would die like this poor woman.
It has been suggested once or twice that I might have exaggerated my concern and my efforts to reduce the risk. I suspect if I asked John, he would say; do anything in your power to protect your family. I sure tried.
No comments:
Post a Comment