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Illness hits tornado-stricken family

Daughter hosptalized in latest crisis to hit Holly household

By Kevin Vaughan, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published April 24, 2008 at 8:45 p.m.
Updated April 24, 2008 at 8:45 p.m.

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A little more than a year after a tornado took his wife and turned his life upside down, Gus Puga finds himself in the throes of another family crisis — this time at the bedside of his seriously ill daughter.

Little Noelia Puga, a 4-year-old bundle of energy, is in the pediatric intensive care unit at Children's Hospital, battling an E. coli infection.

She was on dialysis and oxygen Thursday, but physicians expect her to make a full recovery, her father said.

"I was hoping for this year to be a little better, but it didn't turn out that way," he said, sitting in the sunshine-splashed first floor of the hospital.

On March 28, 2007, a tornado that slammed into Holly in extreme southeast Colorado took dead aim on the Puga family's mobile home. The twister shredded the dwelling, and hurled Gus, his wife, Rosemary Rosales, and Noelia into a large tree.

Gus suffered a broken toe, four fractured ribs, two cracked vertebrae, a broken scapula, nasty cuts and gashes all over his back. Noelia's face was burned, and she sustained a relatively minor head injury.

But Rosemary was badly injured and died later at a Colorado Springs hospital.

The couple's son, Gus Jr., came away unscathed because he was down the road at the home of his grandmother, Auralia Puga.

The family marked the first anniversary of the tornado four weeks ago and was ready for life to take a turn for the better. But that's not what happened — not yet, anyway.

"My luck's not good," Gus said.

As he spoke, he smiled.

That despite the pain he still feels at the loss of his wife. Despite the fact he is recovering from gallbladder surgery. Despite Noelia's sickness. Despite the mounting medical bills, which were north of $150,000 before his recent surgery and his daughter's illness. Gus is a short-haul truck driver. He doesn't have medical insurance but he's paying what he can.

On April 6, Noelia started complaining about a stomachache, and over the next couple of weeks experienced bouts of vomiting and diarrhea. After several trips to see a doctor, she was admitted to the hospital in Lamar on Sunday, then flown to Denver on Monday.

She was diagnosed with E. coli 0157 and a serious kidney condition known as hemolytic uremic syndrome. Doctors expect her to be hospitalized for a week or more while her kidneys recover.

Doctors believe she may have eaten a contaminated piece of meat.

Gus said that when he and his mother looked back, they remembered only one meal that could have sickened Noelia — a hamburger they shared at a restaurant. Gus, however, did not get sick, so the ultimate source of the illness is not known.

Thursday, Noelia lay on a purple pillow adorned with green lizards and canary yellow moons. Cartoon Disney played on the television and she asked her grandmother, over and over, for water. But she can't have anything to drink right now, so her grandmother took a little pink sponge on a stick, dipped it in some water and swabbed it around the inside of Noelia's mouth.

No matter how many times her grandmother explained it to her, the little girl didn't understand.

Comments

  • April 25, 2008

    12:16 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    mommyjillyb writes:

    My heart really goes out to this family. Is there anywhere that donations are being taken for them?