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DEL.ICIO.USFamily needs support more than ever
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The weekend started out on a high note.
On Saturday, Chuck Peavy got to see his 2-year-old twins, Matthew and Megan. Then Julia, his 5-year-old daughter, and her grandmother paid a visit Sunday.
Father and daughter talked about the future, better days, after he got his new heart, left Emory University Hospital and got his life back. Back to their home in Snellville, to Cindi, his wife of 15 years, to the kids.
To living.
“His spirits were good,” Barbara Morales, a neighbor and family friend, told me. Then, Peavy took a turn for the worse, something that’s happened several times since his admittance to Emory in January.
Last month he “coded,” Cindi told me in May, and had to be shocked back to life. Once his blood pressure plummeted to 70/31. More recently, a staph infection developed in his cardiac catheter.
The Peavys hung tough, though, despite Chuck’s congestive heart failure, their money woes, the untenable stress. The couple talked about life after the heart transplant, not life without Chuck, 46.
“We’re pretty optimistic people,” Cindi, 43, had told me. “We have to be. We talk about ‘when you get a heart, when we get this.’ “
Obviously, Peavy, a service writer for Stone Mountain Ford, quit working. Cindi quit her job as a marketing manager to stay atop things. They needed help - with baby-sitting, meals and yes, money. I wrote about their plight in a May 25 column.
No surprise here, but this community responded splendidly. People wanted to baby-sit, donate, clean the house, pray. A kids’ bake sale raised $1,126.
“People were giving $20 for a cupcake,” said Barbara Myers, whose daughter, Allie, helped plan the neighborhood event. “Nobody asked for change.”
Offers of support continue to pour in. It’s still needed.
Patsy Reynolds, a friend of the Peavys’, sent me an e-mail and left a voice message on Friday with an idea that was to be today’s column topic.
“Chuck Peavy needs a heart today,” she wrote. “Why am I telling you this? To see if some information about being a donor could be gotten out to the public right away.”
Right now, there are 56 patients on the waiting list at Emory’s Center for Heart Failure Therapy and Transplantation. According to its Web site, the center performs about 20 heart transplants a year. More than 90 percent of its patients survive a year or more following surgery; about 60 percent live up to 10 years or longer.
But the single biggest limiting factor to transplants of any kind are organ donors - the lack of them, said Lance M. Skelly, a spokesman for Emory hospitals.
Julia and her grandmother had to be removed from Chuck’s room on Sunday. He became nauseous, then his weak heart stopped, said Morales, the family friend, and Cindi’s mom, Charlotte Daniel. Doctors were unable to revive him.
Cindi, who for the most part has been rock solid through this ordeal, finally broke down emotionally and mentally. Late Monday, with the help of Morales, she planned to tell Julia, maybe the twins, that Daddy won’t be coming back home.
At least not to the one here on Earth.
Donations to the Peavy Family Fund may only be made at Bank of America, 840 Oak Road, Lawrenceville. Rick Badie’s column appears on Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. Contact him at 770-263-3875 or e-mail: rbadie@ ajc.com.
Permalink | Comments (13) | Post your comment | Categories: Rick Badie
Comments
By LT5000
June 10, 2008 2:53 PM | Link to this
Welcome to another episode of the “Badie Bedpan Beat” blog. Coming to an Emergency Room near you.
OK, he responds to an email request for a blog topic, but ignores the numerous posts here that demand he write something of actual substance.
LT5000
By Blah blah blah
June 10, 2008 7:17 PM | Link to this
LT5000 - who are you to demand what a columnist writes about? For all you know, he’s responding to email requests for the topics he covers. You don’t like it, don’t read it. As Momma always said, nobody likes a smart-mouth.
By KIM
June 10, 2008 7:45 PM | Link to this
I am grateful that you have kept your readers up to date on the Peavy family. I do not know them, but as I wrote after your first article, you provide an important service to our community when you let us know about neighbors in need. So, once again, thank you, Mr. Badie.
As for LT5000, you deserve no space. You can tell the AJC is a fair publication, as it allows you space to make your incidious comments. I BEG you, read the Washington Post or NY Times. Forget us in Gwinnett. We want to forget you. Actually we will forget you.
By MomOfTwins
June 11, 2008 6:54 AM | Link to this
I will forward this info on to the Gwinnett Mothers of Multiples Club. They try to help parents of twins in any way they can. GMOMS.org
By MomofTwins
June 11, 2008 7:11 AM | Link to this
I also meant to suggest that it would be nice if the AJC would add a voting option for the Comments, so people can vote the entries up or down. Sites like Yahoo Answers have a thumbs up or thumbs down that visitors can click. It helps readers vote down rude posts. When a post gets enough negative votes, it moves down so far that it is not seen, and saves everyone time.
By Jais
June 11, 2008 10:52 AM | Link to this
Oh, by the way, Ricky- If you delete my responses ONE MORE TIME so help me jesus christ your blog will suffer cyber attacks like you have never seen. I am far from a lone poster.
You do not silence me or anyone else, understood Badie? Test me and you will find out just what kind of headache people can cause.
By Laughing
June 11, 2008 11:07 AM | Link to this
Uh, Jais, your comments get deleted because you use profanity and threats. Oh the irony that you invoke the name of JC when you make threats. Let me guess, you attend church every Sunday and pass judgment on all the sinners, right?
By Laughing
June 11, 2008 11:42 AM | Link to this
every bit as much as your consider me a flaming conservative nutjob.
I couldn’t have said it better. I was thinking “pathological” as well.
Rick—delete one of his posts. I want to see Jais’ head spin off.
By Waiting
June 11, 2008 1:43 PM | Link to this
Well, I’ll just sit here and wait for the next response.
On topic…Rick, thanks for the update. My thoughts and prayers go out to this family. And yes, they will still need help.
By Dave Undis
June 12, 2008 11:07 AM | Link to this
Over half of the 99,000 Americans on the national transplant waiting list will die before they get a transplant. Most of these deaths are needless. Americans bury or cremate about 20,000 transplantable organs every year. Over 6,000 of our neighbors suffer and die needlessly every year as a result.
There is a simple way to put a big dent in the organ shortage — give organs first to people who have agreed to donate their own organs when they die.
Giving organs first to organ donors will convince more people to register as organ donors. It will also make the organ allocation system fairer. People who aren’t willing to share the gift of life should go to the back of the waiting list as long as there is a shortage of organs.
Anyone who wants to donate their organs to others who have agreed to donate theirs can join LifeSharers. LifeSharers is a non-profit network of organ donors who agree to offer their organs first to other organ donors when they die. Membership is free at www.lifesharers.org or by calling 1-888-ORGAN88. There is no age limit, parents can enroll their minor children, and no one is excluded due to any pre-existing medical condition.
By A friend
June 17, 2008 11:25 AM | Link to this
I do know the Peavy family. I sat near Cindi in church on Father’s Day as the congregation was told of Chuck’s passing. I am so disheartened by the hateful comments here. I can tell you this, Cindi is a great woman and a great mother. Chuck was a much loved father. I have never heard a cross word towards her kids ever leave her mouth, not once in all the stress of the past year, and the sadness of the past week, she has never lost her patience with her kids. She got them to church on Father’s Day, one week after their father died (how many of us might have rather hid in bed?). I can’t imagine how hard it would be to turn to your community for help. But I know I would be grateful to Mr Badie for the respectful way he shared their story and let the community know how to help if they wanted to. Don’t lose sight of the fact that three children have lost their father and no matter how you feel about the paper or the columnist, this is the most significant event in their lives. Please have some compassion and please take a minute to count your own blessings.
By Светик
July 24, 2008 11:41 AM | Link to this
Вопрос к автору , а вот у вас время у каждой статьи и в комментах пишется… Это какое? Московское? Заранее благодарю за ответ.
By Рубен
January 2, 2009 3:59 PM | Link to this
Даа… Пока это у нас не сильно развито, так что придётся подождать.