Minnesota Prairie Roots

Writing and photography by Audrey Kletscher Helbling

Whooping cough warning & my story November 8, 2024

Filed under: Uncategorized — Audrey Kletscher Helbling @ 2:31 PM
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CONSIDER THIS A PUBLIC SERVICE announcement. A warning. A firsthand account of a disease you don’t want to get. That would be pertussis, also known as whooping cough.

Nineteen years ago, I experienced a severe case of whooping cough which left me coughing uncontrollably, gasping for air and using an inhaler. I would not wish this bacterial respiratory tract infection on anyone. It’s that bad. I was sick for three months. Terribly sick. It isn’t called the 100-day cough for nothing.

NUMBERS ARE HIGH

So why am I writing about something that infected me nearly two decades ago? Well, because whooping cough cases are raging across the country, including right here in Minnesota. We are at an eight-year high with 1,622 confirmed and probable cases reported to the Minnesota Department of Health as of November 7. That compares to only 61 total cases in 2023.

Right now, my county of Rice has 11 of those cases. As one would expect, densely-populated areas rack the most reports of pertussis. In the eight metro counties in and around Minneapolis and St. Paul, 1,308 people have had whooping cough thus far in 2024, according to MDH stats. That’s just reported cases. The southeastern section of Minnesota, where I live, is also seeing plenty of pertussis.

I can throw more statistics at you. But I won’t. Rather, I’m attempting to increase awareness, to suggest you check your vaccination record. That shot you got as a kid does not last forever, as I obviously learned in 2005. I have a message in to my doctor right now checking my vaccination status for a possible booster.

UNCONTROLLABLE COUGHING, EXHAUSTION & FIGHTING TO BREATHE

Looking back to the summer of 2005 when I was infected with pertussis, I remember how awful I felt. I laid on the couch, coughing uncontrollably, beyond exhausted because I couldn’t sleep for all the coughing. The worst was the night I felt my airway closing. I gasped for air, struggled to breathe. In hindsight, my husband should have called 911.

It took three visits with my then doctor to get a correct diagnosis. Only when I coughed in his office (whooping cough has a distinct sound, thus the name “whooping”) did my physician suspect I had pertussis rather than bronchitis. I was his first diagnosed case in his 30 some years of practicing medicine. Early symptoms of runny and stuffy nose, low-grade fever, and mild cough mimic the common cold.

HIGHLY CONTAGIOUS

How do you catch whooping cough? The answer my doctor gave me back in 2005 was this: “You could have gotten it waiting in line at the grocery store.” He’s right. It’s that contagious.

Once diagnosed a month out from symptom onset, I went on an antibiotic, although it was a little late to gain the full benefits of that. My entire family also got on antibiotics. Still, two of them got pertussis, albeit much milder cases.

The gravestone of Deloris Edna Emilie Bode in Immanuel Lutheran Church, rural Courtland. My aunt died of whooping cough. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted file photo)

DEADLY SERIOUS

Pertussis can be serious, especially for the little people in our lives. My Aunt Deloris died of whooping cough in 1935 at the age of only nine months. Granted, more medical intervention is available today. But still, this darling baby, daughter of Lawrence and Josie, died of pertussis. My heart breaks every time I think of baby Deloris.

So that’s my health spiel for today. Be aware that whooping cough is out there. And you really don’t want to catch it.

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NOTE: If you are anti-vax, know that I am not and I will not publish that viewpoint on this, my personal blog. I moderate all comments.

© Copyright 2024 Audrey Kletscher Helbling

 

Remembering the 35W bridge collapse 15 years later August 1, 2022

Filed under: Uncategorized — Audrey Kletscher Helbling @ 10:55 AM
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This photo shows the opening spread of the feature article published in the November/December 2007 issue of Minnesota Moments. Casey McGovern of Minneapolis shot the bridge collapse scene. To the far left is Garrett before the collapse, to the right, his rescuer. The next photo shows his Ford Focus which plummeted into the Mississippi River. And to the right are newly-engaged Garrett and Sonja, before the collapse.

FIFTEEN YEARS AGO THIS EVENING, 13 people died and 145 were injured when the 35W bridge collapsed during rush hour in downtown Minneapolis. Vehicles plunged into the Mississippi River. Others clung to the tilted, broken span of roadway. Lives were forever changed at 6:05 pm on August 1, 2007, when faulty gusset plates gave way and the bridge broke.

Garrett with his mom, Joyce Resoft, about a month after the bridge collapse. (Minnesota Prairie Roots file photo 2007. Photo courtesy of Garrett’s family)

Among those most seriously injured was then 32-year-old Garrett Ebling, former managing editor of The Faribault Daily News. He suffered a traumatic brain injury, severed colon, broken left arm and ankles, a spinal injury and more after his Ford Focus nosedived 110 feet, the equivalent of an 11-story building, into the river. That he survived seems miraculous. He spent weeks in the hospital, where he underwent multiple surgeries. A lengthy rehab followed. His life, physically, mentally and emotionally, was forever changed.

Within months of the collapse, I penned a feature story about Garrett for Minnesota Moments, a now-defunct magazine. Mine was one of the few initial interviews Garrett granted and I was both humbled and honored to share his story as a freelance writer. Prior to his departure from the editorial job in Faribault, we had connected. I remember Garrett’s kindness and compassion toward me after my son was struck by a hit-and-run driver in May 2006. I took great care in writing his story, recognizing that another journalist was trusting me to get it right.

Garrett Ebling’s book.

In 2012, Garrett wrote about his experiences and life thereafter in a book, Collapsed—A Survivor’s Climb From the Wreckage of the 35W Bridge. I reviewed that revealing and emotional book in which this survivor held nothing back.

A section of the then now wow exhibit at the Minnesota History Center in St. Paul features the 35W bridge collapse. This image shows the collapsed bridge and the emergency exit door from a school bus that was on the bridge when it collapsed. All made it safely off the bus (Minnesota Prairie Roots file photo)

Since then, I’ve lost track of the “author, father and 35W bridge collapse survivor,” as Garrett labels himself on his Twitter account. But I expect today, the anniversary of the bridge collapse, is difficult for him as it is every survivor and every single person who lost a loved one 15 years ago in downtown Minneapolis when the unthinkable happened. When a bridge fell.

All the children and adults on the bus signed the door on display at the Minnesota History Center. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted file photo)

There are moments in history that we never forget and, for me a Minnesotan, August 1, 2007, is one of those dates. When I heard the breaking news of the bridge collapse, I worried first about extended family who live in the metro. They were not on the bridge. While that diminished my personal angst, it does not diminish the tragedy of that day for those who were on that bridge. Like Garrett Ebling, the 144 others injured and the 13 who died. It is a tragedy, too, for those who loved them and for us, collectively, as Minnesotans.

© Copyright 2022 Audrey Kletscher Helbling