Aubrey Opdyke talks with the media just after being released Sept. 29 from Kindred Hospital in Riviera Beach while her husband, Bryan Opdyke, stands behind her.

By Eve Samples

MARTIN COUNTY — I tend to encounter two kinds of people in this line of work:

Those who don’t mind seeing their names and stories in print; and those who prefer to keep the private details of their lives, well, private.

Before she was hospitalized with swine flu this summer, Aubrey Opdyke considered herself among the latter.

She went to work. She came home to her husband and pre-school aged daughter. She was a loving wife and a good mother.

Beyond the adoration of her family, she didn’t need any recognition for that.

But Opdyke’s anonymity ended in late July, when she awoke from a five-week coma to find herself at the center of a national news story.

While she was sleeping, the 27-year-old South Fork High School graduate became the face of swine flu — especially for pregnant women.

National and local newspapers (including this one) wrote about her. Television crews interviewed her husband, Bryan, and mother, Joanne Felker of Stuart.

When I spoke to Opdyke on Wednesday, she was en route to be interviewed by CNN at a West Palm Beach television studio.

On Monday, her story aired on CBS Evening News.

Last week, she was featured in The New York Times.

“It’s pretty amazing — but at the same time, I’m really not one of those people that likes attention,” Opdyke said. “But me and my husband agree that we want to get awareness out there.”

Opdyke was pregnant when her flu symptoms surfaced in late June. On July 18, she lost her baby minutes after an emergency Caesarian section.

Because Opdyke was in a coma during the delivery, people following her story knew about the baby’s death before she did.

But Opdyke’s family was OK with that. Hoping that other pregnant women might avoid what she endured, they wiped their tears away and garnered enough strength to share some of the most trying times of their lives.

After Opdyke awoke from the coma, she did the same.

“It is kind of my way to be able to say thank you to everybody for all their help and support,” she said.

Pregnant women are especially susceptible to the H1N1 virus, and Opdyke is one of the few who has come forward with her story.

In mid-September, Opdyke and her mother were kind enough to welcome me into the hospital room where she was recovering. A ventilator tube was in her throat and her voice was weak, but Opdyke patiently answered my questions.

She also agreed to let a photographer take her picture — even though her muscles had atrophied and she desperately wanted to take a shower.

If it helped get the word out that pregnant women need to pay close attention to flu symptoms, then she was willing to do it.

“Even if one person goes to the doctor, it was worth it,” Opdyke said.

She concedes that she’s pretty worn out now. She’s walking again, but she still has physical therapy six days a week.

She wouldn’t mind if her phone stopped ringing, she admitted.

Then she paused.

Actually, there is one other interview she wouldn’t mind granting.

“If Oprah calls, I’ll do that,” she said.

Then she laughed a hearty, healthy laugh.

It was a good sound to hear.

WANT TO HELP?

Send a donation to Helping People Succeed, P.O. Box 597, Stuart, FL 34995.

Make a deposit at Wachovia Bank, where Account No. 1010251053303 has been established to benefit Aubrey and Bryan Opdyke.

Tags: h1n1, swine flu

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 29th, 2009 at 12:16 pm and is filed under Stuart. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.