We are honored to be doing an “Always Grateful” campaign in honor of Ciara and her sweet family. The proceeds from each item will be going to help offset some of the costs that their family has been met with this last year. Here is a little bit of her story:
On December 23, 2023, Ciara and her husband David drove to Pennsylvania with their 2 boys to visit family for Christmas. A few days later both Ciara and her youngest son became very sick and ended up in the emergency room.
Colton had coronavirus and strep, as well as two abscesses of infection in his neck. He was in the hospital for several weeks and required interventional radiology to drain the abscesses. Inflammation pushed one of his vertebrae over, which caused him to need to wear a neck brace. He finally got that removed on Feb 6.
Ciara was immediately sent up to the ICU. She ended up having influenza B, group A strep, and severe pneumonia. Toxins got into her blood stream which sent her into toxic shock (sepsis). The doctors quickly realized where things were heading, so they decided to put her on ecmo (life support), which completely took over the heart and lung functions for her. All of her organs ended up shutting down and her heart stopped beating. This was a very traumatic experience as they were told that the rate of mortality was very high. Slowly her heart and organs began to recover. Because of how bad her toxic shock was, she had to be placed on very high levels of blood pressure medicine. These meds narrow the blood vessels in order to increase pressure. Due to lack of blood flow and oxygen to her extremities, she ended up needing to have all four limbs amputated. It has been a long battle toward recovery for Ciara. So many terrifying moments including a deadly fungus developing at all four amputations sites, which threatened her life once again.
After almost 6 long months in the hospital and rehab, Ciara was finally able to go back home, where she has been learning to adjust to her new normal.
Shortly after returning home, David posted the following on Facebook: When Ciara went to the emergency room on December 28, she was wearing a sweatshirt that said, "Always Grateful". Those two words have been with us through this entire journey. So many times when things were at their worst and we were ready to give into despair, we decided to begin thanking the Lord for what we DID have and take joy in each new victory - a cup of ice-cream, going outside, a real shower, etc. Even though this is not a path we would have ever chosen for ourselves, we truly do have so much to be thankful for. A grateful heart is a very powerful thing. As I write this, I am reminded of the words written by Joni Eareckson Tada in the forward to Choosing Gratitude. "Most of us are able to thank God for His grace, comfort, and sustaining power IN a trial, but we don't thank Him FOR the problem, just finding Him in it." Wow, that's a tough one! We are still working on that. We'd give almost anything to return to how life was before all of this happened. But it has been awesome to hear people tell us about the impact this has had on them and how it has changed their perspective. I believe our whole life will be full of interactions and unexpected blessings that would never have been possible had this trial not come into our lives.
If you would like to learn more about their journey, please read the detailed summary posted to their update page: https://www.facebook.com/share/p/15bQcXagHd/
If you would like to receive future updates, please follow their facebook update page: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61555182425253
