Iowa woman's recovery continues after year of excruciating struggles

The Gazette has been following Laura Adams and her recovery since February, with the first stories published in June.

Read them here:

Part 1: After childbirth, Laura struggled with mounting complications

Part 2: Laura's recovery has been a long mix of successes and setbacks

In many ways, Josephine Adams' first birthday party was like any other toddler's, complete with family, gifts and a cupcake she gleefully smashed before smearing frosting in her hair.

But for her parents, doting as they snapped photos and sang Happy Birthday, the day came with mixed emotions. It also marked the anniversary of the day her mother, Laura Adams, began a descent into medical turmoil that at times left her clinging to life.

'Josie's birthday is always kind of going to be a good thing, but with bad memories,' her father, Darin Adams, said as they watched Josie play with her 3-year-old cousin, Maggie. 'We don't know how we'll explain that to her when she's older.'

Still, on that birthday in early December, life was looking brighter for Laura and Darin than it had in months.

Laura, now 27, was a music therapist at the Iowa Veterans Home in Marshalltown when, on Dec. 6, 2015, she began having abdominal pains, about two weeks before she was due to give birth.

Her doctor told her not to worry, but a few days later she woke up and knew something was wrong. After an emergency C-section, Josie was born healthy on Dec. 9, 2015.

But Laura will be the first to tell you a healthy baby is not the end of the story. That night, as her heart rate rose and a fever set in, doctors realized something wasn't right. A gallstone, more common in pregnant women than the general population, badly damaged her pancreas. She was airlifted to the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics in Iowa City.

The Gazette first met the family there in February, when Laura, barely able to speak after intubation tubes caused vocal cord damage, was slowly recovering, battling her way back from a series of complications, infections and surgeries.

According to the National Pancreas Foundation, acute pancreatitis is responsible for one in every 200 hospital admissions in the United States annually but only occurs in one of every 10,000 pregnancies. In the majority of cases, acute pancreatitis can be treated with simple therapies — but in 15 percent of cases, it becomes serious.

'What she had was the most severe form of pancreatitis you can have,' said Dr. Luis Garcia, the surgeon who has overseen her medical care at UIHC. 'And she's had almost every complication you can imagine. She's probably the worst I've ever seen. I see patients with necrotizing pancreatitis all the time, but not with these complications.'

GALLERY: Laura Adams recovery continues

In fact, he said at first he didn't believe she would survive.

But she did. As she recovered, relapsed and recovered again, her family added brightly colored stars to the wall of her hospital room, each marked with a milestone like sitting up, breathing without a tube or swallowing.

The stars gave her something to focus on during the long days, many of which are hazy in her memory.

'The only thing I remember from Christmas Day last year was the nurse gave me a blanket with a sled on it,' she said. 'They had to take balloons and ornaments out of my room because I was having hallucinations and delirium.'

This Christmas, she is home with her family and the stars are packed away. She doesn't need them anymore — she has better things to focus on, like watching her daughter learn to walk, even as she herself slowly regains the strength to walk on her own.

After five surgeries, that hasn't been easy. She tried to go home once before, only to painfully learn she wasn't yet strong enough — in May, she had moved home to Marshalltown, but she was there for a few days before having to return to Iowa City after doctors believe she pulled several muscles.

Though she is now out of the hospital again, she still needs frequent care while Darin, 30, is at work. So in October, she moved in with her parents, Mary and Lloyd Tull, who live in Waterloo. Darin and Josie moved to Waterloo as well — Darin is renovating a house he hopes he can welcome his wife home to soon — so that the family can all live in the same town for the first time in months.

The Tulls watch Josie most days in lieu of day care, allowing Laura to bond with her daughter in ways she couldn't before.

'I actually feel like a mom now instead of a visitor, because I was only seeing her for a few hours at a time before,' Laura said.

But Laura still has a long recovery ahead of her, including at least two more surgeries to repair internal damage. For now, she has a gaping wound on her abdomen, covered with a wound manager — a plastic pouch of sorts, stretched over the hole in her stomach. She can eat, but most of her nutrition is delivered through IV. After the next surgery, she should be able to move off the IV and get all her nutrition through solid food, a huge step.

Struggles have not just been physical. Darin, who works for the federal government, has spent hours on the phone, arguing with his insurance company over one thing or another.

Part of the problem was that Laura's complications have been so rare. At first, the wound managers, which cost at least $3,000 a month, were classified incorrectly at a lower reimbursement rate.

As the couple looks to the future, they worry what could happen if the Affordable Care Act is repealed and not replaced with insurance components vital to them. Before the law, Darin's insurance plan had a $2 million lifetime cap — such caps are now illegal. He estimates Laura's bills have already exceeded $8 million. Laura is also thankful the law prohibits pre-existing conditions from preventing access to insurance, as she will likely have medical needs for years to come.

'We're not people who make poor choices. We just don't have the millions of dollars for Laura's care that we would need,' he said.

As the couple looks to the future, Darin described a special gift he ordered for Josie's birthday: a doll with a stoma, an opening on the surface of the abdomen, just as her mother has.

If all goes well, someday Laura's stoma could be just a memory and a scar.

That is just one of her hopes. Maybe next Christmas, she thinks, she will be able to get rid of her walker, and maybe she will be able to get down on the floor and play with her daughter.

She envisions, someday, returning to the work she loves as a music therapist. She is building stamina in her vocal cords and hands so she can sing and play guitar at full strength again. And she's considering enrolling in an online graduate school to advance her music therapist studies.

'In terms of mental health, I'm a lot better off than I used to be,' she said.

By Darin Adams

My life changed forever 9,168 hours ago.

I nearly lost my wife, Laura, in a health care crisis. It was scary, and I was afraid of how to live without her. Every day my heart raced with fear.

Her strength and a team of medical professionals helped her pull through and survive. Then a second disaster occurred, and I nearly lost her again. Almost losing her once was heart breaking; almost losing her twice left me speechless.

Laura is a survivor, and now, a year later, we have hope for the future. Throughout this journey, people have said they don't understand how Laura and I have been so strong, how we've made it through everything.

The reality is we haven't been strong by ourselves. We have received overwhelming support from family, friends and people we've never met before.

To everyone who has helped us financially, thank you. For those of you who have listened to Laura or me vent, thank you. To Mary and Lloyd, Laura's parents, thank you for everything, including watching Josie when we could not. To Kirby and Al, our close friends, thank you for watching after our fur-babies. To my boss, thank you for your compassion and understanding.

It's only through the help and prayers of everyone that we've been able to weather this trial, and that help will allow us to move forward.

As the old saying goes, 'It takes a village,' and from our experience, that couldn't be more true.