Wow, do I remember the day of the TMI accident. I was an elementary teacher in Harrisburg and I was 5 months pregnant.
As news trickled in, we were told not to share anything with the students but eventually the parents started showing up to cart the kids off. The kids questioned us but we kept it to ourselves. No one really knew what was truly happening or how to react. Word got to me that the radio was cautioning pregnant women to leave the area. My husband was also a teacher and I assumed he was doing exactly as I was – trying to make it through the school day with a handful of students whose parents could not pick them up.
I was eventually told to leave a bit early while someone covered my class. Oddly, I simply went home and waited for my husband. There was no instant communication then. Even more oddly I started to leak fluid which I also didn’t understand.
no one really understood what was going on – but I was pregnant
The phone calls started coming from out of town family – even one from Germany. My husband and I decided to travel to Chambersburg to stay with his brother and wife. It was closer than family in Philly and Pittsburgh. Again, no one really understood what was going on – but I was pregnant.
My sister-in-law in Chambersburg was also pregnant and seemed to think a call to the doctor was in order. Not long after I found myself at Chambersburg Hospital being told by her OB/GYN (ironically the brother of my OB in Harrisburg) that I would not be having a viable baby – my membranes had ruptured. My OB in Harrisburg was much kinder and said let’s wait for the panic to die down, bring you home, and put you on bedrest until you’re due. I loved that guy! I was transported to Harrisburg Hospital about a week later, then released to home for the wait. I was due in August.
April 12th I spiked a fever and returned to the hospital. My fever indicated infection and I was induced to go into labor for the safety of my own health. My son was stillborn. If he had been born living, he was too young to survive at 21 weeks.
Do I think this premature birth had anything to do with TMI? Not really.
I was part of a study in which they called every few months after that to see how I was doing? I don’t remember who they were and I never heard anything about the study.
Oh, one more thing – my neighbors had just gotten a new puppy. He was found dead in their yard the day of the accident. I’ve never been able to forget that either!
Carol