Swine flu nightmare: Man had to choose between losing his wife or his baby

According to a CNN interview on October 28, 2009, Aubrey Opdyke of West Palm Beach Florida came down with a sore throat back in June.

She was 27 years old, in good health, and she was 26 weeks pregnant. She had not gotten vaccinated for protection against the swine flu, but she didn’t think anything of the sore throat at first, because she had no other symptoms of concern.

Then, she started getting delirious.

It got so bad, she didn’t know who she was and couldn’t recognize people. Her husband rushed her to the hospital, where she was put on Oxygen and finally intubated and put onto a respirator.

Aubrey’s condition went down so rapidly, the doctors had to put her into a medically induced coma. Then, they talked to her husband, Bryon, and told him the time might come soon, when he would have to choose between the life of his wife or his baby girl, already named Parker Christine.

What an impossible situation for any man or woman to be put in: to choose between a spouse and a child.

It was an agonizing choice, but Bryon finally told the doctors:

“Save Aubrey,” he said of the woman he married the previous year. “I can make another baby, but I can’t replace her.”

Meanwhile, Aubrey suffered a third lung collapse, and her condition deteriorated to the point where an emergency C-section had to be performed to remove the baby, who survived for only seven minutes.

Bryon was not allowed in the surgical suite. All the surgeons wore Haz-mat type apparel, due to the virus, although most hospital and medical staff through out the country had been first to get vaccinated-- they were still encouraged to take extra precautions.

Aubrey spent the summer in intensive care. Her lungs collapsed six times. She had several seizures. She remained in a coma for several months. She under went high-pressure ventilation so extensive, her body ballooned up to look like she had gained 400 pounds, leaving her with stretch marks on her legs.

Worst of all, Aubrey, without any conscious awareness or voice--lost her baby.

When Aubrey finally began to emerge from her coma, she would communicate by blinking her eyes or wiggling her toes. Eventually, she made a full recovery, and has been eager to share her story in the hopes of helping other women avoid the nightmare her and Bryon, and their four year old daughter—lived through.

According to the Center for Disease Control, forty six states are now reporting cases of the swine flu and Health authorities say more than 1,000 people in the United States, including almost 100 children, have died from the strain of flu known as H1N1.

The vaccine is especially important for people with underlying heath conditions, children, and pregnant women.

In fact, the World Health Organization says that pregnant women are the highest risk group for catching swine flu.

John Bartlett, director for the Center for Civilian Biodefense Strategies at the John Hopkins School of Public Health said the vaccine is as safe as the seasonal flu vaccine, with very few side effects. “It is 1,000 times safer than getting the flu,” said Bartlett.

The statistics are increasing by the day, with potential to over burden emergency systems. Due to an under-estimated availability of chicken eggs, which are needed to develop the vaccine, there has been a shortage, but CDC estimates 30 million doses by the end of October, 50 million doses by November, and 150 million by December.

Aubrey Opdyke, a shy, soft spoken woman, barely made it back from death’s door to beat all the odds and survived a horrific ordeal fighting off the ravages of a controversial virus: H1N1 swine flu.

To wrap up the CNN interview, Aubrey was asked if she had any advice to give pregnant women and this was her response:

“Get vaccinated and go to the doctor. Don’t wait. I just had a sore throat and now my whole world is upside down.”

More information about swine flu

***Copyright DelilahStarling 2009