FALLS VILLAGE-She would have been sweet 16 in just a few more days. A party was planned with all her friends around the pond behind her family's Route 7 home.
After she reached that May 3 milestone she would have been able to ride along with a state trooper as part of her Explorers training and to drive a car. But now Jessica "Jessy" Pierzga will never achieve those goals. A severe bout of influenza (flu) had the 15-year old student fighting for her life for more than a week before she slipped away April 14.
Jessy, who after many years as Jessie decided to change the spelling of her nickname last year, was a second degree karate black belt. She played field hockey and lacrosse at Housatonic Valley Regional High School, was active in the Girl Scouts and worked part time at West Cornwall's Wandering Moose Café.
She counted scuba diving among her passions, and her parents had taken her on dive trips to Hawaii, the Bahamas and the Florida Keys. Photos from these trips and other family functions were plastered all over the only child's room.
"She was so close with us. She would still snuggle with us before she went to bed-how many 15-year-olds can you say that about?" her mother, Maryann Pierzga, asked.
"She was a very caring person, very loving and loved travel and adventure," said her mother. She recalled that in the Bahamas they dove with the sharks.
"She was a very sweet, fun, wonderful young lady," said Russ Sawicki, owner of the Wandering Moose Café. "We, as a family, will miss her." Her mom retold the sad story that started on the evening of Thursday, April 5. "That night she played a lacrosse game after school. She came home and felt fine. She went back out to Police Explorers and when she came home she felt tired, like she was getting a cold. So she went to bed early. At about 9 p.m.," she said.
Jessy woke up early the next morning complaining of feeling ill, and she vomited. They went to the see Jessy's longtime pediatrician, Dr. Jason Perkel at Torrington Winsted Pediatrics. At 9 a.m. he did a flu swab because she was complaining that her chest hurt. It came back clear. There was nothing in her lungs.
"A little while later, my husband took her to get her medicine and a milkshake that she wanted," recalled Mrs. Pierzga. Later that afternoon, the shake came back up and Jessy was still complaining of chest pain.
In the next bout of sickness, "there was a little bit of blood in her vomit. I got concerned but it wasn't a lot but she wasn't coughing a lot. We took her to the emergency room in Torrington and she was complaining more and more. They did a chest X-ray at about 10 p.m. and at that time her right lung was completely filled with fluid. Her oxygen level was low. Thankfully, Dr. Perkel came down and said suggested calling Connecticut Children's Medical Center," she said. They sent a medical team, including a respiratory doctor, down by ambulance and they took Jessy back with them after putting a tube in her throat.
"Once we got there she went downhill and was on a respirator. Her vital signs and blood pressure wouldn't stabilize. About eight hours later she was airlifted to Boston Children's Hospital via Lifestar helicopter. The two teams of doctors stayed in touch the whole time," she said.
They moved the sick child because they thought she needed a certain kind of respirator not available in Connecticut. They put her on it at about one in the morning. They also considered putting her on an ECMO machine, a heart lung machine to keep her organs going. "At that time, her vitals were good but she was in critical condition. It was up and down, they would get one thing stable and another would go wrong," her mother said.
"The next couple of days were still kind of iffy," she continued. "They were thinking of putting her on the ECMO machine because every time they would move her, her heart rate would just plummet. She was so fragile that any movement would be not good at all. We really didn't want to put her on the ECMO machine because it has only a 10 percent chance of survival once you take that step and on the respirator they told us she had a 50/50 chance." When they moved her to give her an X-ray she went into cardiac arrest, but her parents decided to give her another chance before putting her on the ECMO machine, which could lead to bleeding in the brain. "After she went into cardiac arrest the second time we wanted to put her on it," her mom recalled.
She stabilized on that machine, but she was also suffering from sepsis, a sort of blood poisoning caused by too much infection in the body. By Thursday evening Jessy's pupils were dilated, a sign of bleeding in the brain, and the doctors had done a CT scan and saw the bleeding. "At that time, Joe and I called some of Jessy's friends and our families to come to Boston and say goodbye and give her a kiss and talk to her."
That night, in Falls Village, friends and family had set up a candlelight vigil outside the Pierzga residence and the State Police came to close the road because of Jessy's involvement with the Explorers.
"Thursday night the nurses brought in another hospital bed so Joe and I could sleep next to her and hold her," her mother said. "Friday morning, people came, about 12 of Jessy's friends and our family drove up to Boston. It was wonderful to know that she had so many good friends. They all went in and held her hand and said goodbye and talked to her.
"We laid with her again that night," she continued. "She had such a bad night. They couldn't get any of her vitals level no matter what they did. We were hoping she would last until Sunday but we had to make a decision and on Friday at about 1 p.m., she left us."
"She actually wanted to be an organ donor but all her organs were so damaged they couldn't use anything. We were upset about that because we knew her wishes but unfortunately we couldn't do that," her mother added.
"The whole time we just couldn't understand how the flu could come on so quickly and do so much damage in so little time," Mrs. Pierzga recalled. "She wasn't ill. She was a perfectly healthy kid-just healthy and happy and a scuba diver. She was so well rounded it was kind of incredible. We're still, basically, in shock but we were in total shock at that time."
Both Mr. and Mrs. Pierzga agree that, at one point at the hospital, leaning over her bed, they had a warm feeling at the same time. What they had thought was a message that she was going to be OK they now think was her actually saying goodbye. "It was such a warm feeling," her mom recalled.
"It's hard to believe she went from a healthy living girl to this," her mom lamented. "She was everything to us. That's just the kind of kid she was."
A mass will be held for Jessy at 11 a.m. today at Lakeville's St. Mary's Church. Burial will follow at Cornwall Bridge's St. Bridget's Cemetery. A potluck reception will follow in the cafeteria at Housatonic Valley Regional High School at 1:30 p.m.
Litchfield County Times 2007
-------------------- There is no wealth but life. -John Ruskin
All truth goes through 3 stages: first it is ridiculed: then it is violently opposed: finally it is accepted as self evident. - Schopenhauer Posts: 5639 | From Aptos CA USA | Registered: Apr 2005
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CaliforniaLyme
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The cup of tea Jessica Lynn Pierzga had sipped to settle her stomach still sits beside a computer amid the cluttered and precious belongings in the bedroom loft that gave the 15-year-old's life rhythm: a karate black belt, lollipops, sparkly clothes; photos of friends, and of her with her parents in Florida; lacrosse, field hockey and scuba equipment.
A lacrosse practice session had gone well but tired her April 5. Diagnosed with the flu by her pediatrician the following morning, she was given an antiviral medication. A chest X-ray was clear. She and her father Joe stopped for a milkshake.
But she left home for the last time later that night after telling her father she was having trouble breathing and needed to go to the hospital. A chest X-ray this time revealed that her right lung was filling with fluid and pediatrician Dr. Jason Perkel of Torrington recognized the seriousness of the situation. An infection was ripping through her body.
She died a week later, April 14, at Boston Children's Medical Center.
Her father and mother, Maryann Pierzga, were still numb Tuesday over the loss of their only child.
"Nobody dies from the flu any more," Joe Pierzga said after explaining the complex and sometimes irreversible body system and organ failures, as if trying still to understand it himself. "Everything began to shut down." Jessica never regained consciousness after a team from Hartford's Children's Hospital arrived at Torrington's Charlotte Hungerford Hospital to take over her care Friday. They administered drugs to paralyze her body and placed a tube into her lung while doctors treated the influenza.
"Our immune system is set up to be able to fight off infection, but there are times when even the best medical interventions can't stop them from overwhelming body organs, a situation which leads to sepsis," Perkel said.
When her condition continued to deteriorate, she was flown by Life Star Helicopter to Boston on Saturday night where she was hooked up to a machine that does the work of the lungs and places oxygen in the blood. Her heart wasn't pumping enough blood to circulate through her extremities.
On the way to Boston, her father collected details about the helicopter ride, meaning to relate them to the daughter everyone knew as "Jessy," still coveted as Daddy's little girl. Her mother held long one-way conversations, and reminded herself to ask her daughter when she woke up to come up with the name of the angel that must have been watching over her.
"It didn't happen that way," she said.
They rubbed their daughter's legs through the night Thursday to keep the diminished blood flow blood circulating.
"At one point Thursday we both had a warm feeling," Pierzga said. "In retrospect, we think she was letting us know it was time to let go."
Her parents, who hardly slept during the first four days of the ordeal, were allowed to sleep in beds pulled close to their daughter in Boston. By Thursday a CT scan revealed bleeding into the brain, even as there were signs the infection was beginning to abate. She was disconnected Saturday from a ventilator as her parents held her.
-------------------- There is no wealth but life. -John Ruskin
All truth goes through 3 stages: first it is ridiculed: then it is violently opposed: finally it is accepted as self evident. - Schopenhauer Posts: 5639 | From Aptos CA USA | Registered: Apr 2005
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Geneal
Frequent Contributor (5K+ posts)
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posted
Life is so precious and fragile....
A reason to live each day and love each day as if it were your last.
How tragic for the family....
Hugs,
Geneal
Posts: 6250 | From Louisiana | Registered: Oct 2006
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CaliforniaLyme
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posted
Yes, the dad of Jessy appeared on an avian flu & pandemic forum questioning what could have killed her, I replied re possibility of TBDs. Ehrlichiosis causes pleural effusion and can be seronegative even when acute & fatal- can't help but wonder if it wasn't Ehrlichiosis- similar to deaths on TBD Memorial Page-
-------------------- There is no wealth but life. -John Ruskin
All truth goes through 3 stages: first it is ridiculed: then it is violently opposed: finally it is accepted as self evident. - Schopenhauer Posts: 5639 | From Aptos CA USA | Registered: Apr 2005
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bettyg
Unregistered
posted
how awful; 2 young people killed in 1 week.
this really does sound like lyme/co-infection as you suggested sarah. thanks for posting.
don't know if this is eliglble for the obituaries or not; might not hurt to ask.
my heart goes out to her family on this quick loss of a young life.
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posted
Yes, ehrlichia came to my mind too, after reading the article. Wonder what they were treating her "infection" with? If it was the wrong drug, it would not have helped her.
These sudden deaths seem to be most associated with ehrlichia, among all the TBDs.
Posts: 8430 | From Not available | Registered: Oct 2000
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CaliforniaLyme
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posted
Betty, for nine years now I have webbed The Lyme Disease Memorial Page at http://www.angelfire.com/planet/lymedisease/Lyme/Memorial.html but I would not put anyone on who did not die of Lyme disease because that diminishes the meaning of the page.
I do think she may have had Ehrlichiosis myself though Lou- yes, I agree, and perhaps the Dad will pursue getting her tissue tested because from his postings on the flu pandemic site he is not satisfied with the cause of death he has been given from what I can make out from what he has posted. He is questioning her cause of death and is not satisfied with the answers he has been given because it does not really match the flu!!!!
-------------------- There is no wealth but life. -John Ruskin
All truth goes through 3 stages: first it is ridiculed: then it is violently opposed: finally it is accepted as self evident. - Schopenhauer Posts: 5639 | From Aptos CA USA | Registered: Apr 2005
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shazdancer
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
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posted
Litchfield County, CT is highly endemic for TBDs. At the very least, the doctors up there need to be informed on what to look for.
Posts: 1558 | From the Berkshires | Registered: Jul 2001
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CaliforniaLyme
Frequent Contributor (5K+ posts)
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posted
No wonder the Dad hasn't been back on the flu site- that poor poor family- *******************************
KENT: Family stunned by a second tragic young death
Friday, May 25, 2007
BY BRIGITTE RUTHMAN
Copyright � 2007 Republican-American
KENT -- A pall of sadness over the death of high school sophomore Jessica Lynn Pierzga on April 14 still was heavy in her aunt's home Tuesday when Jessica's cousin took a motorcycle out for a test drive. He never returned.
Christopher Plass, 19, died instantly when he lost control of a 2007 Suzuki and struck a utility pole a half mile from home. He had been repairing the motorcycle with the friend who owned it when he took it out for a drive, his mother Karen Plass said. An eyewitness to the crash told state police he might have swerved to avoid a deer in the road. He wasn't wearing a helmet.
Another funeral, another young life lost, seems more than the family can bear, Plass said.
A wake will be held from 5 to 8 p.m. Monday at the Engel Funeral Home in Highland, N.Y., near Plass's father's home. The body will then be cremated and the ashes returned to Cornwall.
A service will be held at St. Bridget's Church in Cornwall Wednesday evening. The time of the service hadn't been set Thursday.
"All of my life, I have always said that if, God forbid, anything should happen to either of my children, that I have no regrets about being a good mother and giving them a good life," Plass said. "My son did a lot in a short time. He was a happy go lucky kid."
Karen's brother, Joe Pierzga of Falls Village, and his wife Maryann lost their only child, 15-year-old Jesse, after she fell ill with the flu and succumbed to a resulting infection. "At least now they have each other again," Pierzga said.
Pierzga and Plass bonded as children when they both lived near their grandmother's home in Cornwall Bridge.
Like his cousin, Plass had traveled the world and pursued his passion for sports. He had climbed peaks in Colorado, gone bungee jumping in New Zealand, and ridden a camel to tour pyramids in Egypt. He loved to water ski, snowboard, and go deep sea fishing. He and his mother had planned a sky diving trip this summer.
His interests also included motorcycles, but his mother had forbidden him from owning one because of the inherent risks. A 2005 graduate of Housatonic Valley Regional High School, Plass moved from Cornwall Bridge to Kent with his older sister Morgan, his mother and stepfather in 2000. He commuted with his best friend, Delton "D.J." Joe, from Kent to his father's flooring business in Highland, N.Y. He spent time with his girlfriend, Jade Pignatello, and planned to pursue technical school training to become a certified mechanic.
"He liked to tinker with things," his mother said. "He was very proud of his Mazda RX-8."
The teenager's mother kept herself busy Thursday, methodically making arrangements for the memorial service.
"I told her that she should clean out Chris's room now, because in two weeks she won't be able to," Pierzga said.
-------------------- There is no wealth but life. -John Ruskin
All truth goes through 3 stages: first it is ridiculed: then it is violently opposed: finally it is accepted as self evident. - Schopenhauer Posts: 5639 | From Aptos CA USA | Registered: Apr 2005
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bettyg
Unregistered
posted
a double tragedy for this family! so sad....
sarah, i'd forgotten about YOUR lyme memorial site; neuro lyme does that a lot you know. i hope the dad pursues.
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