The Mail-Journal, Volume 15, Number 36, Milford, Kosciusko County, 27 September 1978 — Page 21

52 Days In A Coma

For 52 days the Steuck family of Beloit, Wisconsin kept a vigil, waiting for their daughter Judy to come out of a coma, watching for signs of recognition. Doctors gave the 22-year old Judy Steuck, a University of Wisconsin-Madison graduate student, ho chance of recovering to a normal state after she was overcome by carbon monoxide fumes from a faulty space heater in December 1975. Judy was on a travel-study tour in Europe and had gone to Spain to meet friends from home. Today, Judy is completely recovered and studying for her master’s degree in Communicative Disorders at the University of Wisconsin-White-water so that she may become a speech pathologist. Jeanine Steuck, Judy’s mother, says that the family never lost faith that she would recover and has written a book about what it’s like to deal with coma. GOOD MORNING JUDY! is the name of the book because those were her first words after almost two months of silence. “One doctor had compared her case to that of Karen Quinlan,” her mother said, “but we had trust in the goodness of God and the belief that miracles do happen” Recalling the months when she was in a coma, unable to speak or move, Judy says that she was well aware of what was going on around her. “I was a prisoner of my own body,” Judy says. Frustrated over some of the remarks of those who thought her unconscious, she says, “I did not respond to anyone but Jim, my fiance and my family, because they were the only ones who treated me like I could understand and I could tell they believed I would get better” Because she had been trained as a speech clinician, Judy knew what she must do to help in her recovery. As her awareness returned, she realized that crying would strengthen her vocal cords, so she would cry very hard. Even the doctor misunderstood her behavior, she says. Judy’s brother, Jerry, read to her from some of her therapy books. “It opened doors in my mind. There was a lot of information about how important yawning is in strengthening tongue muscles” Jerry worked with her, using the text and from then on, she made progress toward recovery. It was a long, painful process that took nearly a year. Mrs. Steuck’s story of the family’s faith, tells of a series of miracles attending her trip with her

brother to Spain to bring Judy home. The Spanish doctor who accompanied her on the plane, although it meant not spending Christmas with his wife and baby. She tells of the heartwarming response of people in all parts of the country who provided financial and sympathetic help. Mrs. Steuck points out in the book that one of the things to be learned from Judy’s experience is that it is essential to deal with comatose, braindamaged patients on an adult level. Even though unable to communicate, they retain an adult outlook and find it insulting to be treated like children. Judy attributes her recovery to the steadfast refusal of her family to accept the diagnosis of doctors that she would never again be normal. Judy’s ordeal began on the night of December 16, 1975 after having spent an evening at the opera with friends. Upon returning to her Madrid hostel about midnight, her room was cold and she requested a heater from the woman who managed the place. The woman told Judy she would return in a half hour to turn it off. “I opened the door after a half hour and looked down the hall toward my room, became frightened and locked the door, leaving the key in the lock as added precaution. I remember I was shaky and had a hard time fumbling with the key in the lock.” But the woman in charge of the hostel became interested in a TV program and forgot to return to disconnect the heater. It wasn’t until 11:30 the following morning, December 17, that the manager picked the lock of Judy’s room with scissors and found Judy unconscious. She turned off the heater and took it out into the hall. Frightened, she called a doctor. The doctor gave the girl an injection of adrenalin to speed up her heartbeat and then asked the woman about the gas heater, but she said she had turned it off. Judy has scars as the results of hot water bottle treatment and had to have skin grafts on the stomach because of infection due to burns, because antibiotics didn’t work. GOOD MORNING JUDY! is the story of an ordeal that every family will find moving because young Judy returned to a normal life through the faith of her family in what doctors themselves say was a miracle.

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