ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, June 1, 1996 TAG: 9606030072
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-4 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WILLIAMSBURG (AP)
SOURCE: ALISON FREEHLING THE (NEWPORT NEWS) DAILY PRESS
The first symptom Chelsea Worley showed was pushing her food away. All she wanted to do was drink water - ``wah,'' she kept crying.
Two days later, the 17-month-old started refusing to lie down. Her mother noticed Chelsea was running a slight fever and decided to take her to the pediatrician.
Tricia Worley and her husband, Brad, thought they were talking about a hard-to-shake cold or maybe the flu.
The pediatrician held a stethoscope to Chelsea's chest and heard a strange rattling noise. He decided to take a chest X-ray.
That's when the problem showed up: a rusty, 1-inch nail lodged inches from her right lung.
``Everyone just panicked,'' said Brad Worley, 27. ``It was a life-or-death situation. If the nail had pierced her lung, she could have died within minutes.'' Chelsea, who was rushed to Children's Hospital of The King's Daughters in Norfolk for emergency surgery, likely had inhaled the nail, doctors later said.
It could have been stuck in her airway for as many as three days, they said. It had infected her lung tissue and brought on pneumonia.
``We were worried that if she started crying again, the nail would come up and choke her to death,'' said Tricia Worley, 25, who believes Chelsea pulled the nail out of a wall of their home in James City County.
Five months later, the Worleys are set to go on television to tell their story during this weekend's Children's Miracle Network Telethon, organized to raise money for 161 children's hospitals nationwide.
Over the past 13 years, the national telethon has raised more than $917 million. Last year, more than $1 million was raised locally for Children's Hospital of The King's Daughters.
Chelsea, now 2, was selected as one of this year's batch of ``CMN Champions'' - children who have required specialized care at a children's hospital.
``We just wanted to give something back to the hospital,'' Brad Worley said. ``We owe them our daughter's life.''
For the Worleys, the hero that cold January night was Craig Derkay, a pediatric ear, nose and throat doctor.
When Chelsea arrived at the hospital, Derkay had just finished surgery to remove a ballpoint pen cap from a teen-ager's airway.
Using a specialized instrument called a ventilating bronchoscope inserted through Chelsea's mouth and into her airway, Derkay removed the nail with a pair of tweezers in less than 30 minutes.
``We were lucky that the nail was pointing toward us,'' Derkay says. ``If it was embedded in the lung tissue, it would have caused the lung to collapse.''
Derkay estimated he uses the ventilating bronchoscope - found only at children's hospitals - about 20 times a year to remove objects from airways. Some of the most common objects are food such as peanuts and carrots.
``We don't see many nails,'' Derkay says. ``They are always pretty dramatic cases.''
Chelsea spent a week recovering in the hospital. The day she left, she was racing through the halls and clamoring for her favorite food, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. She has since gained more than 10 pounds and is busy playing with her dolls and her siblings - Brent, 8; Jacob, 6; and Ashley, 4 - at the Worleys' home.
``She's a miracle,'' Brad Worley said, again and again. ``She's a miracle, is all.''
LENGTH: Medium: 72 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP. The doctor who saved Chelsea Worley relied on aby CNBventilating bronchoscope, a medical instrument found only at
children's hospitals.