Amy Freeze is a runner, a triathlete, a cyclist. Sunday
she won't be running in The Shamrock Shuffle, but cheering, here's
why.
This weekend is a sure sign of Spring,
the kickoff to the running season, The Bank of America Shamrock Shuffle.
The event attracts more than
35,000 runners and tens of thousands of spectators along the 8K (4.97
mile) course.
that participants can do it and raise money for charity
organizations. This year, a new charity that started right here
in Chicago will line up at the start line. Eighty members representing
the cause: Team American Against Malaria. The woman
who founded the organization has a startling, yet inspiring story.
A full Gallery of Photos is available on the Chicago Tribune
website with Photos by Antonio Perez
.
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Chicagoan
beautiful. She's in her early thirties, has blond hair and a
contagious smile. She's a runner and has completed four
marathons, 3 in Chicago Marathon and Honolulu. She's an
accomplished pediatric nurse who works at Children's Memorial
Hospital in Chicago. She's adventurous, social, and the
kind of person that when you meet her you immediately want to have her
as a friend. That's what makes her story so hard to accept for some
people. It seems that she didn't deserve the tragedy that
she's been through.
Why would someone so wonderful
lose so much? Dawn has a passion for traveling and Africa was a place
she had always wanted to visit. Dawn chose not to take malaria
prophylactic medication and unfortunately was bitten by an infected
mosquito while in Ghana. Dawn returned to Chicago approximately
ten days after being bitten in Ghana, Africa and began feeling very
tired and looking pale, thinking she was just suffering from jet-
lag. The next day Dawn returned to work at Children's Memorial
Hospital and left early because she was feeling weak, nauseated and
complaining of headache. Later that evening Dawn developed fever and
chills that continued until early morning. Dawn very concerned
went directly to the emergency room that morning when she woke, where
she was diagnosed with the most deadly strand of malaria, Plasmodium
falciparum.
Dawn was admitted to the hospital for
observation and medical treatment, and notified her family of the bad
news. She became acutely ill and was transferred to the
intensive care unit the following evening. The last thing Dawn
remembers before slipping into unconsciousness was telling her mother
that she felt like she could not breathe. While in the ICU Dawn
developed further complications from septic shock, had limited
circulation to her extremities, and as a result underwent surgery
requiring amputation of her limbs just below the elbows and
knees. Dawn realized she was a quadruple amputee approximately
one month later when she came back to consciousness, and felt
extremely devastated about her limb loss.
src="http://www.chicagonow.com/blogs/pace-of-chicago/team_aam_logo_269u-1.jpg
form>Fortunately, Dawn has a large support system consisting of family,
friends, colleagues and medical staff, and through many tears and
emotions has learned to cope with the struggles of limb
loss.
I met Dawn
when her friends and family asked me to MC a fundraiser to help with
her medical expenses. We had only a brief meeting, but the
outpouring
of support for her that night from friends and family was a clear
testament of how many people adored her.
Over the
past year, Dawn and
her friends and family have blogged about her surgeries, her struggles
and her triumphs. From a distance, I've marveled at the entire
situation. Dawn explained in one of her recent public
presentations
(about her story and Malaria) that there are certainly stages of grief
and denial and acceptance in limb loss.... but she left out the stage of
triumph.
sgr paul
5 days, 6 hours ago