Mother of Whitley teen with Swine Flue speaks out

A Whitley County High School freshman is making progress in her battle with the H1N1 virus, but her mother cautions that her daughter is not out of the woods by any means.

Tuesday, from the East Tennessee Children’s Hospital, Cierra Jones’ mother, Sharon Jones talked about the small steps her daughter is taking toward recovery and how far she still has to go.

"They did take her off of the jet-ventilator and put her on a much smaller one and that was a really big step," Sharon Jones said. "They have also stopped giving her the medication that was used to keep her basically in a coma.

"She is still sedated to help her get better, but she is not in the medically induced coma that she was in," Jones added.
Sharon said doctors diagnosed Cierra Jones with pneumonia at Baptist Regional Medical Center on Sept. 23. Jones said that the next day, Sept. 24, doctors at the Jellico Community Hospital sent her daughter to ETCH and put her on a ventilator, where she remains.

According to Jones, doctors at BRMC never tested Cierra for H1N1, and when she told doctors her daughter had been coughing up blood, they said her throat was likely raw from coughing too much.

Sharon Jones said she felt like doctors may be growing a little too complacent when dealing with the possibility of the H1N1 virus and that each case needs to be treated a little differently.

"It is frustrating because they are telling people to just wait and see how it plays out," Jones said. "You can’t afford to wait because this is the type of thing that can happen.

"I think maybe they aren’t taking each case as serious as they should because I think each person reacts differently to an illness," she added. "When I got to Baptist, I told them she was coughing up blood, but they said it was just from her throat. When we took her to Jellico the next day, they found her lungs were bleeding so they rushed her here. They should have figured that out on the first visit."

Sharon Jones said despite all that, she is happy that her daughter is slowly getting better but described her life as a "whirlwind" right now. She said she has two other children, an 18-year-old and a 12-year-old, the latter of which still lives at home and she said she hasn’t seen in two weeks.

"It is like a whirlwind right now, literally," she said. "One minute she will be doing really good and getting better, but the next minute her fever will go up and things go downhill for a while.

"Her fever has been getting as high as 104.7 and because of that they are checking for a possible secondary infection and trying to keep that fever down," she added.

Although she is unsure of just how things will play out, Jones said she has been touched with the outpouring of prayers and well wishes for her daughter, because without those the situation would be a lot tougher than it is.

"Cierra is a great kid and she would do anything she could to help someone," Jones said. "I want thank everyone for all their prayers and encourage them to keep them coming because they are working.

"We are taking baby steps, but we are getting there and it wouldn’t be possible without the support of so many people," she added.

As for anyone who feels like their child may be coming down with the H1N1 virus, Jones said they cannot be too careful and said parents should leave no stone unturned as far as a doctor visit goes.

"If you feel like your child is sick with this, please do not leave the doctor’s office without being sure," she said. "There seems to be a 24 to 48 hour window where kids will feel a little bit better and that’s kind of what Cierra went through, but you have to be sure of this stuff.

"Just take every precaution available and pray for the best," she added.