“One thing that will stick in my head forever is they did say, this is a life-or-death surgery,” Cayden Daily explained. “There’s no way getting around that.”
He added, “The new mom strength just amplifies it even more to the point that there is no other alternative besides getting better. It’s going to be great; we’re going to overcome it. It’s just a little different than we thought it would look like.”
Fighting for her life
Weeks before her son’s due date, 29-year-old Jenna Daily experienced an aneurysm rupture, leading to severe brain bleeding.
On March 31, Jenna was taken to Wesley Medical Center in Wichita. She then transferred to the University of Kansas Medical Center, where two surgeries were immediately required: one to deliver the couple’s firstborn, Rai, and a second to clip the aneurysm.
“It was not how I expected becoming a family of three, not what I expected for her becoming a mother,” Cayden said. “When I first saw him, I was super happy, but it was just me, and I was completely beside myself because I didn’t know what was going on with her.”
After three weeks in the ICU, Jenna and her family knew that she needed specialized rehabilitation to take on those motherhood responsibilities. She came to Madonna Rehabilitation Hospitals determined to do whatever it took. Rai graduated from the NICU just in time to come with her.
“From day one, she fought to be a great mom for Rai, and that was very apparent,” Karen Eilers, PT, DPT, CBIS, a Madonna physical therapist, said. “And it just totally shaped how hard she worked.”
Relearning motherhood with baby on board
Understanding that adjusting to motherhood while in recovery from brain trauma is a unique challenge, Jenna’s physician-led care team offered guidance.
“After you have a baby, the emotions are heightened,” Jessica Virgil, MOT, OTR/L, CBIS, a Madonna occupational therapist, said. “And when you are hospitalized and you’re not able to be with your baby every second of every day and do those normal mom things, it’s hard. So we tried to problem-solve different ways on how to parent and care for a baby.”
To address deficiencies on the right side, they worked with Jenna to teach her techniques for mothering with one hand and practiced using various equipment to demonstrate her capability in participating in Rai’s care. Using Madonna’s simulated nursery, Jenna changed Rai’s diapers and onesies. She learned how to move him with one arm, as well as feed him. She also assisted with bath time and after seeing significant improvements in her mobility, she was also able to push Rai in the stroller.
In addition to being a new mom learning to bond with Rai, Jenna had to navigate the aphasia and apraxia she was experiencing from the brain trauma.
“It affected the left side of her brain where all the language pieces are managed,” Amy Potter, MS CCC-SLP, CBIS, Madonna speech-language pathologist, said. “That can affect a person’s reading ability, writing, verbal expression, as well as comprehension. Jenna had some components of all those areas. We also noticed that there’s another component, called a motor speech disorder, where the brain takes the word you want to say and jumbles up the sequence of the sounds. Jenna was severe enough that she’d had no verbal attempts at all. She had no voice. She wasn’t able to get the voice even started.”
Potter got creative, giving Jenna a whistle to see if they could create the habitual position and lip rounding necessary to speak. They paired that with an iPad for suggestive phrasing and communication board capabilities to help with word prediction and spelling.
Jenna’s family also used the strategies and generated a list of functional phrases that included Rai’s needs, like changing the diaper, to help enhance her communication.
Knowing that Jenna needed to bond with her son, her daily therapy schedule of physical, speech and occupational therapy always included Rai.
“He pretty much gets a front-row seat every day to therapy,” Cayden said. “There’s no ifs, ands or buts about it. He is 100% supposed to be there and welcome there. Seeing him and having him here just as a reminder to keep working so I can take care of him and continue to be a bigger part of his life.”
Rai is a beacon of hope, urging her to continue pushing to be the courageous mom she has shown herself to be.
“She is such a joy and such an inspiration to all moms out there to just fight for their little ones and fight for their family,” Eilers said.