A Nova Scotia family hit by tragedy is reaching out for help.
In December, Nadine Duffney’s family says she was perfectly healthy and had just celebrated her 36th birthday.
Today, family members of the young mother say she is a ventilator-dependent quadriplegic after contracting meningitis.
“It’s changed all of our lives completely,” said Shelly Penny, Duffney’s sister.
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In early December, Penny says her sister thought she had the flu. The pain got so severe that one night Duffney’s 13-year-old daughter called an ambulance and she was transported to hospital.
Following a spinal tap, Penny says her sister was diagnosed with bacterial meningitis.
Meningitis is described as an inflammation of the membranes which surround your brain and spinal cord. Symptoms can develop over hours or even days and often mimic the flu.
In the past few months, Duffney has had several surgeries and is now a quadriplegic who relies on a ventilator.
“She had the surgery on her neck. She had to have a trachea put in because she’s ventilator-dependent now. She’s had stomach surgery to input a feeding catheter. And she’s had to have a pacemaker put in because her blood pressure was dangerously low,” Penny said.
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Duffney is a single mother who was raising a young daughter and son.
Penny says the last few months have been difficult for the family and that Duffney’s children are coping.
“Her 13-year-old daughter is going through a rough time. She was just sick here about a week ago and it’s like my mommy always took care of me, you know, hugged me, made me soup, told me I was going to get better and I don’t have that anymore,” Penny said.
“The little boy, he’s living with my mother and step-father, who are elderly. He’s a handful and he just doesn’t understand why mommy can’t talk, and why mommy can’t move her hands. He’s still a little too young to understand, except for that, crying himself to sleep, missing his mom.”
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Penny says Duffney won’t be getting better and she will likely never be able to return home.
“Her home now for the rest of her life will be the Bridgewater Hospital because there’s no nursing homes that are equipped to hold ventilators,” she said.
“When I go to visit her every time I leave, I’m so sad and in tears because it just breaks my heart.”
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According to Penny, the family was told it would cost $200,000 a year to have Duffney live at home. “That’s something that is not reachable,” she told Global News.
Penny says Duffney didn’t have any insurance and that some medical costs, like a better wheelchair, simply aren’t covered. “Right now her life is her bed and a chair.”
A GoFund Me Page has recently been launched with a goal of reaching $10,000.
Currently, Penny says Duffney can only communicate by sticking out her tongue and smiling. The hope is to use the money to purchase a specialized piece of computerized equipment so that Duffney can learn how to communicate with her children.
“(It) will allow her, using her eye movement, to be able to text, to be able to communicate with her kids and her doctors and family and her friends,” Penny said.
Penny says the family is also hoping to eventually raise enough money to purchase a portable ventilator and a wheelchair so they could potentially move Duffney around the hospital and take her outside.
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