PORT TOWNSEND — After a winter of fighting a potentially deadly respiratory virus in a Tacoma hospital, 8-month-old twins Onyx and Ceinna Neidigh are in a new home, quick to smile and learning to crawl.
The babies survived respiratory syncytial virus at Mary Bridge Children’s Hospital and Medical Center after they fell ill during Christmas season in a Port Townsend mobile home filled with black mold.
Away from work
The threat of losing their youngest children left their father, Clayton Neidigh, and mother, Amber Hansen, unable to work, having to be there at the hospital.
Today, family members, which include four other children besides the twins, are piecing their lives back together in a spacious Section 8 rental home made bright by natural light from windows and high wooden vaulted ceilings on Hastings Street, a move arranged in great part through the Olympic Community Action Programs.
They moved in earlier this month after Neidigh cleaned out about 90 percent of the furniture in the mobile home they had lived in.
Black mold had covered much of the interior of the mobile home rental the family was living in and had spread to furniture, said Paul Marchant, public health analyst with the state Department of Health.
Respiratory syncytial virus — or RSV — which causes infection of the lungs and breathing passages, is a major cause of respiratory illness in young children, according to the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Web site at www.cdc.gov/rsv.
“Almost all children will be infected with RSV by their second birthday,” the CDC Web site states.
“Most people recover from the disease in a week or two, but RSV can be severe, most commonly for children 6 months of age and younger and for older adults,” the CDC states.
“Premature infants or those with lung or heart problems are especially at risk for serious disease.”
The disease can be exacerbated by the presence of black mold, Marchant said.
New home
The family’s new home is furnished with donations through OlyCAP, the Veterans of Foreign Wars and others.
The home they rented goes for $1,400 a month, but the federal Section 8 housing subsidy pays for about half, he said.
“We had no worries before this whole thing. Now we’re counting change,” said Neidigh, who before the twins’ December illness was a chef at Silverwater Cafe in downtown Port Townsend.
“Until we get our life straight here, I can’t be back at work 55 hours a week.”
Neidigh and Hansen have been doing odd jobs on the side and taking shifts caring for the twins. They each have two other older children but share the twins as their parents.
RSV is highly contagious and can be spread through droplets containing the virus when someone coughs or sneezes. It also can live on surfaces such as countertops or doorknobs and on hands and clothing.
RSV can spread rapidly through schools and child care centers.
Babies often get it when older kids carry the virus home from school and pass it to them.
Respiratory illness caused by RSV — such as bronchiolitis or pneumonia — usually lasts about a week, but some cases may last several weeks.
“I stared at my babies for a month on machines,” Neidigh recalled, with doctors regularly cleaning infected mucous out of the babies’ lungs to help them breath.
Onyx and Ceinna were at Jefferson Healthcare hospital in Port Townsend shortly after Christmas until they were flown to the Tacoma hospital for more specialized treatment. They were treated in Tacoma for more than three weeks.
Neidigh served six years in the Army and is a veteran of the Iraqi war’s Desert Storm and Desert Shield operations,
He entered Western Culinary Institute in 2002 and worked for the Portland, Ore., Hilton hotel restaurant before coming to Port Townsend, which he said is a better community for the children.
Both Neidigh and Hansen are artists and landscapers. He etches glass and restores retro lamps, which he also sells when possible.
He said he hopes to return as a chef at the Silverwater Cafe soon.
Grateful for help
Grateful to all those who helped his family, Neidigh said, “If we stayed in Seattle, we would probably have been in a homeless shelter or back at my parents” in Spokane.
“This is just a blessing here,” he added, looking around the new home space with the babies resting and bouncing around in donated baby chairs.
Donations can be made in the twins’ names at Quimper Community Federal Credit Union, 1165 Landes Court in Port Townsend, behind the Safeway store.
Those wishing to donate also can phone 360-385-3663.
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Port Townsend-Jefferson County Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.
