-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Wednesday, October 11, 2006
Despite all the bad ish that we are constantly bombarded with from Kim Jong Illin to Darfur. When I get that sinking feeling that we as humans are regressing and love is leaving the world. When the media wants to keep pumping articles about how Black Men are bad or Absent fathers. There are stories and experiences that grab those things and smacks them in the face. And even though Micheal passed his quick thinking, strength and heroism is a glowing example of what I want this blog to rep and and what images I want out there.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Words of hope — and a blink
By Joel Currier
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
09/14/2006
Every day, Nicole Mwesigwa gives her husband five minutes of hope.
In the burn unit at St. John's Mercy Medical Center, Nicole squeezes the hand of her husband, Michael, gently and tells him about their two kids, whose lives he saved. She talks of his plans to start school and his brother's scheduled arrival from South Africa.
And she never forgets to remind him she loves him.
He can't talk back, but Nicole says she knows he can hear her beneath all the bandages because he blinks his eyes to let her know.
"In that five minutes, I'm, like, rambling as much as I can all the good things for him to look forward to," she said.
Michael Mwesigwa, 31, was burned over 80 percent of his body in a morning chemical fire Aug. 11 that gutted their Valley Park home in the 100 block of Wynstay Avenue. He was installing baseboards in their unfinished basement laundry room when a can of glue spilled, releasing vapors that exploded in front of him.
With his flesh melting and a fog of black smoke filling the house, he sprinted up two flights of stairs, grabbed Steven, 3, and Michael, 2, and got them out of the house. They haven't seen him since. The severe smoke and water damage ruined much of the family's belongings.
Nicole says her husband is a hero. "I do believe he saved those children," she said.
Nicole knows her husband's chances of survival are bleak.
The fire burned off most of Mwesigwa's skin, giving him a 10 percent or smaller chance of surviving, statistics consistent with most severe burn victims, said Dr. Jonathan Pollack, associate director of the burn center at St. John's.
Before the fire, Michael Mwesigwa would stay at home to care for the children while preparing for classes at the University of Missouri at St. Louis, Nicole Mwesigwa said. He hopes to someday complete a master's degree in pharmacology. He is from Africa, where the couple met several years ago while Nicole was in the Peace Corps. They hope to move back to Africa.
After the fire, a neighbor, Amy Erdmann, 39, looked after the children for a couple of days. Erdmann, a second-grade teacher, says the children knew their father was hurt in the fire but didn't understand that he had saved their lives. They told her he had kissed them before they were taken away by firefighters.
"I think it was a miracle when the fire chief checked on the boys and they didn't have a scratch on them," Erdmann said.
Mwesigwa has had about five surgeries so far to give him synthetic and donated skin, his wife said, and he faces at least 10 more surgeries. Doctors tell her that her husband has used about 150 pints of blood, and that his recovery has begun to deplete the hospital's supply of blood type O-positive. Each surgery requires between six to 10 pints of blood because the severe burns prevent the body's ability to produce new blood cells, Pollack said.
Nicole Mwesigwa is asking people to donate blood to the hospital's blood services center, not just for her husband, but for all burn victims.
Since the fire, neighbors, family and friends have donated meals, clothing, bedding and gifts for the children. A neighborhood lemonade stand raised $550, said neighbor Michelle Moller, who helped organize the stand. Nicole and the children have been living in a house they're renting down the street from their charred home, which is being gutted and rebuilt. She says they'll be able to move back home in about four months.
Nicole Mwesigwa remains positive and believes her husband is showing signs of progress. She visits him at the hospital every day after working a six-hour shift at an insurance company in Chesterfield. At his side in the hospital, she waits for him to open his eyes for those few moments each day and says he gives her a stronger blink to show that he's excited about something, she said.
She tells her husband that his brother, Ronald, was scheduled to arrive in St. Louis on Wednesday from South Africa, on his first trip to the United States.
Strong blink.
"I remind him of how much I love him and how much I want him to come back," she said.
Another blink - stronger each day.
jcurrier@post-dispatch.com 314-340-8126
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment