FARMINGTON – SAD 9 teacher Rick Hardy and district Health Coordinator Melissa Yeaton have a lot in common.
Both were hospitalized at Central Maine Medical Center in early February with life-threatening head injuries. And now, after weeks of surgery and rehabilitation, both are being released from CMMC, only a few days apart.
Hardy, who landed on his head when he fell from his roof Jan. 29, is to be released Wednesday, and Yeaton, who had surgery for a tumor between her brain and skull in early February, arrived home Thursday afternoon.
The two teachers, who ate meals together when hospitalized at CMMC and hope to commute back and forth to Lewiston together for more therapy in the coming weeks, endured conditions that can be (and often are) fatal or, at best, life-altering.
Yeaton, 32, was admitted to CMMC on Friday, Feb. 10, after waking up with tremors in her arm. After her husband, Nate, called an ambulance and she was rushed to the hospital, doctors discovered she had a tumor between her brain and skull. She had surgery Feb. 13, during which surgeons discovered the tumor was benign; she then began three weeks of intensive physical and cognitive therapy.
Now, Yeaton is just relieved to be home. “It was great to come home and be with the kids again,” she said. Still recovering, she is tired and forgetful at times, but she’s been spending her time “getting to know” her 7-week-old daughter, Katie, again.
Yeaton said 3-year-old son, Eli, is relieved she’s back, and seems to be dealing with his mother’s illness as well as can be expected “I had long hair before – now it’s shaved. My son keeps telling me I look like a boy, but that’s OK. He thinks it feels fuzzy, and he keeps rubbing it,” she said.
Aside from being home with her family, Yeaton said the best thing about being home “was just being in your own room and not having a roommate.”
That, and being with his dog, Jackson, again, is what Hardy looks forward to most about his own return to Farmington this week.
Hardy, who taught fifth grade at Cascade Brook school before his accident, said Friday he can’t wait to go home.
“I was just thinking, four more days in the hospital, and then I’m home!” he said. He’s excited about being “familiar with your surroundings,” and “getting to do certain things,” like walk around, for instance, without asking.
His wife, Carol, said her husband seems back to normal after more than a month of surgeries and speech, occupational, and physical therapy. His only setback right now is his vision, which is so weak at the moment he cannot read and has trouble watching TV. Doctors think the vision problems will pass, he said, but still, they’re frustrating. “I’m a get-up-and-go guy,” Hardy said. “so to stay in one room is tough for me anyway, but the fact I can’t read a daily paper or read a book “
Although his sense of humor and memory are back, he says he doesn’t remember the accident or the days immediately after waking from a medically induced coma.
He said his injury changed his perspective on life, on a few levels.
“I guess I’ve always thought I’ve known how important friends, family, and community really are,” he said. “But (the injury) really impressed upon me how important that whole thing is.”
The other thing he learned “is just,” he paused, “how delicate life really is.”
“I’m kind of a hard-news guy, I’d try anything once,” he said. “But I’ll probably never get up on a ladder again, on a roof and I’ll never put on another pair of skis again without a ski helmet – I won’t do anything again without a helmet,” said Hardy, known around town as the man who revitalized the SAD 9 ski Program.
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