Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, December 30, 1994 TAG: 9412300119
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: KIMBERLY N. MARTIN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
All six siblings and their children gathered at their parents' Roanoke County home, where Granny and their mother prepared the meal. Katie, the 22-year-old baby of the family, handed out the gifts.
But this year was different.
There was no one to distribute the gifts and no one to call each sibling to find out what Santa had left under their trees, either.
``We sat and waited for her to call, but she never did,'' said Marilyn Shelor, one of Katie's sisters.
She knew Katie couldn't call, but she had hoped somehow she would.
These days, hope is all the Charlton family has left.
Katie Lynn Charlton has been in a coma since an Aug. 20 canoeing accident.
The accident happened one Saturday afternoon when Katie was heading down the Roanoke River with her boyfriend, Rylan Green. Their boat struck a fallen tree limb, causing the metal canoe to flip, get tangled in the tree's limbs and pin Charlton underwater. She was trapped there for 10 minutes.
Once out of the water, emergency crews got her breathing again, but they couldn't get her to regain consciousness.
She still hasn't.
``From a medical standpoint, the doctors don't foresee anything changing,'' said Katie's brother, John Charlton.
But that hasn't discouraged her family.
They keep a daily vigil at Katie's Lewis-Gale Hospital bedside, and they have Katie on prayer lists around the nation.
Her condition hasn't changed.
``There have been times when we've said, `Look this way,' and she has, or we've said, `Blink twice if you understand me,' and she's done it, but it hasn't been on a consistent basis,'' said Lisa Glass, another of Katie's sisters. ``She has periods of being awake, but she's not aware.''
But because Katie, who before the accident was a First Union Bank clerk and a part-time Virginia Western Community College student, breathes on her own, the family is being pushed to move her out of the hospital.
``The hospital is leaning on us pretty hard. They've said they can't let her stay over there indefinitely,'' Glass said. ``The insurance stopped paying in November because they said she could get the type of care she needed in a nursing home.''
Katie constantly runs a fever, but as soon as she gets over her most recent touch of pneumonia, her family will move her to Richfield Nursing Center in Salem.
It's a move the family said they cannot afford.
``She doesn't have the funds for it, and the family doesn't either, so we've had to go the Medicaid route,'' Glass said.
Despite the financial and emotional hardships, her family refuses to give up.
``We still believe in miracles,'' John Charlton said.
by CNB