Oseltamivir (Tamiflu) Drugs During Pregnancy
[See: [2009 Oct Letter] Swine flu fatal? Or Tamiflu fatal?]
Footy friends rally after Perkin loses wife and son
http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/-/newshome/6214085/footy-friends-rally-after-perkin-loses-wife-and-son/
Oct 14, 2009
Cindy Perkin died at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital on September 5, seven days
after giving birth to her stillborn son Jake.
Even when his eyes welled with tears Chris Perkin somehow managed to smile.
Perhaps it was his way of pulling himself together, to ensure the next moment
came and went without him breaking down.
Or maybe it was his mind turning to his two little boys, without whom he would
be "totally lost".
Almost six weeks since the inexplicable deaths of his unborn son Jake and wife
Cindy just seven days apart, Mr Perkin's torment is unimaginable but his courage
undeniable.
"She is my soul mate and I still think she is with me," Mr Perkin, a prominent
amateur footballer and West Coast Eagles physiotherapist, told The West
Australian.
As family, friends and the WA football community rally around Mr Perkin and his
sons Ben, 6, and Sam, 4, there remain few answers to Mrs Perkin's death on
September 5 or that of her stillborn son on August 29.
The coroner is investigating Mrs Perkin's death, which came after the
35-year-old was twice released from St John of God Hospital in Subiaco in the
days leading up to her death.
"I don't expect to find anything and I am not pointing fingers anywhere," Mr
Perkin said. "All the doctors are as lost as what I am."
Mr Perkin said the first significant signs of complications in his wife's
pregnancy came in the last week of August, about three weeks before she was due
to give birth.
Mrs Perkin, who had already endured what Mr Perkin said was in hindsight her
third "tough" pregnancy, suddenly fell ill and was prescribed a precautionary
dose of the swine flu antiviral treatment Tamiflu. Subsequent tests found she
did not have swine flu.
Two days later on August 29, as the Perkins' celebrated their son Ben's 6th
birthday, Mrs Perkin felt cramps in her stomach and started suffering headaches
and blurred vision.
Mr Perkin drove her to St John of God Hospital , where she developed a blotchy,
red rash all over her body upon arrival. Hospital staff soon delivered the
horrific news that her unborn baby's heart had stopped and she would need an
emergency caesarean.
Mrs Perkin spent the next four days in hospital with her husband by her side
before she was released on September 2.
They spent Mrs Perkin's first afternoon out of hospital choosing a grave site
and the following day selecting his clothes, a coffin and a teddy bear for his
funeral.
On the evening of September 3. Mrs Perkin's blurred vision and headaches
suddenly returned. She felt "a bit weird", Mr Perkin said. As the symptoms
became stronger Mr Perkin again drove his wife to St John of God , where tests
were inconclusive.
Doctors told Mrs Perkin she should probably stay in overnight but she decided to
go home. At 2.30am, about an hour after they had returned home, Mr Perkin said
he was shocked out of a deep sleep by his wife's cries from the hallway.
"She said, 'My legs aren't working, I can't walk'," Mr Perkin said. He pleaded
with her to keep talking but as he lifted her on to the bed and helped her into
a jacket, she lost consciousness. She would never wake up.
Mrs Perkin spent the next 40 hours in an induced coma at King Edward Memorial
Hospital and then Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital with a rare condition called
haemolysis, where red blood cells unexplainably begin killing themselves.
On September 5, as Mrs Perkin started showing signs of improvement, doctors told
Mr Perkin to get some rest while they moved his wife for a CT scan.
"As I put my head on the bed, mate, I have heard this code blue - which means
resuscitation - in the radiology department so I have gone, 'oh no'," he said.
"I am not a religious man but I prayed on the way down. I've run down eight
flights of stairs trying to get there and then I have got there and I ran in
there and they were on the table pumping her heart. For 20 minutes I am just
watching her being resuscitated. But basically her heart stopped and that was
it."
A fundraising quiz night for the Perkin family is being organised by West Coast
and the North Beach Football Club at Burswood on November 11. Tickets can be
bought from the Eagles on 9381 1111.