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Family struggles for twins

By ROBIN STEIN
Published December 8, 2006

Jason Drozdyk, 2, relaxes in the hyperbaric oxygen chamber at their home in Palm Harbor this week. His mother, Kim, says the oxygen therapy helps with his muscle spasticity, body movement and head control.
	[Times photo: Kathleen Flynn]

PALM HARBOR - At a glance, Kim Drozdyk seems to have a perfect cookie-cutter life.

A super soccer mom with the face and figure of a cheerleader, the 42-year-old darts effortlessly between the stew simmering on the stove and the towheaded twins toddling around the living room. Her husband and three older children come and go from the waterfront house on Indian Bluff Island.

But behind the Brady Bunch-like gloss is a story filled with tragedy and resilience.

Kim and John Drozdyk lost two babies - a girl in 1997 and a year later, a boy with severe brain damage, who lived only two months.

In 2004, they adopted twins born four months premature. Jessica and Jason weighed less than a pound each when they came home from the hospital. Now they are cuddly and adorable, but last year the Drozdyks learned that both have cerebral palsy, a neurological disorder that impairs muscle coordination.

Since then, they've had some luck with an alternative therapy. It's expensive, and the family is struggling financially, but others are stepping in to help.

* * *

New Year's Day 1997: The pink paint was dry, the crib set up and the changing table stocked with diapers. Baby Rachel Lynn was expected any day.

It was rare John was not at the Dogwater Cafe, the Clearwater sports bar he owns. So the Drozdyks decided to catch a movie.

Kim said she felt the first contraction in the popcorn line. Halfway through the movie, she went to the ladies' room and began to worry. With her other three children, there hadn't been any blood. They went to the hospital but were sent home.

There would be three more days of heavy bleeding before Kim was deemed ready to give birth.

Years of depositions, affidavits and an autopsy revealed that an undetected abruption had caused the bleeding and led to Kim's emergency Caesarean section.

Meanwhile they sent out birth announcements. In the photograph, in a bundle of pink blankets and a tiny pom-pom cap, the baby looks like she is sleeping.

"We are sad to announce the short life of our beautiful daughter," it reads. "... Our little angel, Rachel came and went in an instant."

* * *

Six months later, they found out Kim was pregnant again.

The baby's room sat empty up until a few weeks before her due date, when they finally put up a new crib and changing table and added a fresh coat of paint. This time, blue.

Kim was home alone a few days later when she felt a familiar rush of blood, and passed out when paramedics arrived to take her to the hospital. Steven was severely brain-damaged by the time he arrived, and whisked off to the neonatal unit at All Children's Hospital in St. Petersburg.

After two months and multiple surgeries, doctors gently explained the situation. Steven was unhooked from all the tubes and machines and brought to a quiet room where the Drozdyks waited. Kim said they were told it would happen quickly.

Three days later, Steven took his last breath.

* * *

June 5, 2004: An expectant mother and 19-year-old inmate in the Pinellas County Jail was five months along. She was in no shape to become a mother, especially when her water broke in her cell four months early.

By the next day, she was back in her cell, and her twins were at All Children's Hospital.

It was the last place Kim Drozdyk wanted to go.

"I hadn't even held a baby since I lost mine," she said. "Just seeing them, you start to picture holding yours as he's dying."

But she reluctantly agreed when a friend from down the street - who happened to be the mother's aunt - asked her to tag along for support.

On the way, Kim's friend grappled with the dismal options. She suspected that the state would take custody of the babies and probably put them in foster care.

The twins were lying in separate cribs, under heat lamps, stuck with tubes, Kim recalled.

"These babies have no one here and they are fighting for their lives," she said she thought. She came to see them every day, took photos to their mother in jail, and, after consulting with the rest of the family, began calling adoption companies and banks to arrange a loan.

"I'm going to have to adopt them," she remembered thinking. "Somebody has to love and take care of these babies.

Jason came home after two months, followed a few weeks later by Jessica, her feeding tube still attached.

Kim said she knew babies so premature were likely to have health problems. From the start, they had dozens of doctors and therapists. Gradually, Jessica's development caught up and passed her brother's.

Then last year, Kim saw an unfamiliar word on Jason's medical records and typed it into the computer. That search eventually led to an explanation of why Jason's fists clenched so hard they turned purple, why his legs and arms always felt so stiff, why his eye did not follow the mobile over his changing table.

Jessica also has a minor case of cerebral palsy, Kim said, which affects her balance and causes her hands to spasm.

But at 2 1/2, Jessica bops around in tights and ponytails, while Jason can barely hold his head up. Insurance covers the therapists, and the various custom rigs that help Jason sit up and move around.

This year, Kim said she started taking Jason to hyperbaric oxygen therapy.

Patients are sealed in chambers with high concentrations of pressurized oxygen for hourlong sessions.

The treatments, which almost mimic the experience of scuba divers, increase the amount of oxygen absorbed by cells and are routinely used to treat burn victims and patients with diabetes and Lyme disease. But the therapy has not been approved for cerebral palsy, so the insurance does not cover the $200 sessions.

By refinancing their house and selling John's motorcycle, they bought a used chamber on eBay for $12,000. After months of two sessions a day, Kim said all Jason's therapists agree he has made noticeable improvements.

The progress convinced the family that Jason would flourish in Ability Camp, a five-week program in Canada that combines hyperbaric oxygen and other therapy. The next session starts in January.

The only hurdle is a $8,300 program fee. There is nothing left to finance or sell, but as word spread among neighbors and regulars at Dogwater, the Drozdyks started getting checks, donations and advice.

Kim printed out fliers and held a garage sale last Saturday. Neighbors contributed items, and the sale brought in $500. Thousands of dollars short, they remain determined that Kim, Jason and Jessica will be on a plane to Canada on Jan. 2.

And on Saturday, they are having another garage sale.

[Last modified December 7, 2006, 22:09:38]