As he sits cradling his infant son, Santa Cruz County Sheriff's Deputy Brian Lande says he can’t look ahead more than a few weeks.
His attention is split, he says, between the needs of his young son and those of his wife, Melissa, who is in a coma at UC San Francisco hospital.
Melissa slipped into coma in March during her pregnancy after doctors discovered she had a brain tumor. Determining an operation to remove the tumor would kill her unborn child, doctors waited to treat her as she slipped into a coma.
Last week, doctors determined her pregnancy had advanced to the point the baby could safely be delivered.
Little West Lande was delivered by C-section at 10:56 a.m. last Thursday morning.
Since that time, Brian admits he’s been torn in two directions.
“It’s awesome being a dad,” he told KTVU. “It’s not surprisingly a lot of work. Being a dad who also has to take care of his wife who needs as much care as she does. She has to make all the same accomplishments that he (the baby) needs to. Just like he needs to open his eyes and look around – that’s what her physical therapist is working on. Keeping her eyes open – looking around. It’s a lot to juggle taking care of two people who need that amount of attention and love.”
Brian took baby West to visit Melissa on Thursday. He laid the baby next to his wife.
“They both look very relaxed,” he said.
Brian said Melissa’s condition has improved enough for her to be moved out of UCSF and into a rehabilitation hospital.
But he admits that life will not be back to normal until Melissa is recovered and back home. Until then, he and his family will be documenting West’s everyday life.
“I always assumed, hoped, taken for granted, that I would be doing all this with Melissa,” he said. “When we came home from the hospital, she would be with me.”
Lande has set up a GoFundMe.com site to raise money for Melissa's treatment. Interested parties can go there to make a donation.
