THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, May 28, 1996 TAG: 9605280093
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B7 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ALISON FREEHLING, NEWPORT NEWS DAILY PRESS
DATELINE: JAMES CITY COUNTY LENGTH: 76 lines
The first symptom Chelsea Worley showed was pushing her food away. All she wanted to do was drink water and cry.
Two days later, the 17-month-old began refusing to lie down. Her mother, Tricia Worley, noticed Chelsea was running a slight fever and decided to take her to their pediatrician.
Tricia and her husband, Brad, thought the child had a tough-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-long nail lodged inches from Chelsea's right lung.
``Everyone just panicked,'' says 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 told the Worleys.
It could have been stuck in her airway for as many as three days, doctors say. 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,'' says 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 locally and across the country who have required specialized care at a children's hospital.
There is Anna Morgan, 7, of Hampton, who was born without ears and has undergone surgery to construct one ear. Edwin Ward, 6, of Elizabeth City, nearly died after a stroke at age 4.
Taylor and Tyler Bockman of Hampton, 20-month-old twins, were born 14 weeks prematurely. Both suffer from cerebral palsy.
The Norfolk hospital serves children throughout southeastern Virginia, as well as from the Eastern Shore and northeastern North Carolina. Specialized services include neonatal intensive care, reconstructive surgery, cancer treatment and numerous outpatient programs.
``We just wanted to give something back to the hospital,'' Brad Worley says. ``We owe them our daughter's life.''
For the Worleys, the hero that cold January night came in the form of 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 teenager'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 towards us,'' Derkay says. ``If it was embedded in the lung tissue, it would have caused the lung to collapse.''
Derkay estimates 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, who weighed 19 pounds at the time, spent a week recovering in the hospital. She couldn't eat for three days, had an ear infection and was highly irritable, Brad Worley says.
But the day Chelsea left the hospital, she was racing through the halls and clamoring for her favorite food, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, Worley says. 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 Worley home in the Country Village Trailer Park.
``She's a miracle,'' Brad Worley says, again and again. ``She's a miracle, is all.'' ``We never,'' Tricia Worley adds, ``let her out of our sight.'' by CNB