When 2017 was
not yet a month old, Tiffany Arata and Anthony De Monte found
themselves in the midst of a catastrophe no parent wants to
contemplate. A year later, miracles are beginning to appear on the
horizon for their young daughter.
On Jan. 22, 2017, Thea De Monte, then 17 months, was found
unresponsive in shallow water in the aboveground pool at a family
member’s home, where a gate had been left ajar.
Paramedics worked on the toddler for 40 minutes before there was any
sign of life, Tiffany Arata said.
Thea’s blood-oxygen level had plummeted to 6.4 percent, her mother
said. Normal is between 95 and 100 percent.
Thea was taken to Florida Hospital South in Orlando, where she spent
three months in intensive care.
Sustained by breathing and feeding tubes, the child experienced
neuro storms a stress response that can occur after a traumatic
brain injury. Her muscles were drawing her body inward.
Smiles again — Thea De Monte is smiling again, after
hyperbaric-therapy treatments at Central Florida Hyperbaric in
Winter Park.
PHOTO COURTESY OF TIFFANY ARATA
“She started contracting herself in the
hospital,” Arata said. “They did a pupil test and thought she was
blind. There was no response, and we thought she was in a vegetative
state.”
An MRI showed damage to Thea’s frontal lobe, the part of the brain
that controls cognitive and motor skills and coordination.
At the end of March, she was transferred to Children First Pediatric
Pavilion, a medical group home in Orlando, where Thea can get the
24-hour-a-day care she needs.
Hope was not abundant. Fortunately, it’s renewable.
“She was there for a couple of months when I came upon an interview
of a little girl with a similar situation,” Arata said.
Hyperbaric oxygen therapy had turned around that child’s
circumstances.
“The little girl was doing the same things the neuro storms. … She
was wheelchair-bound,” Arata explained. “After 200 and something
treatments, she was able to say a couple words. The little girl,
after therapy, uses a walker, but she’s able to walk.”
It was a thin thread of hope for Thea.
As fate would have it, Central Florida Hyperbaric in Winter Park is
not far from the group home where Thea lives. She began a
40-treatment regimen in fall, and completed the sessions in
November.
The results have been remarkable, Arata said.
“Within 10 treatments, she could move her arms and kick her feet up
in the air,” she said. “She smiles now. She makes eye contact. Her
pupils are showing reaction, so doctors don’t feel like she’s blind.
… She tries to sit herself up in bed.”
A hyperbaric chamber delivers oxygen to the body at a level higher
than atmospheric pressure. The patient is required only to lie down
and breathe.
Nurses who monitored Thea’s condition initially are amazed.
“They say she’s a completely different child,” Arata said.
According to Central Florida Hyperbaric’s website, “Hyperbaric
Oxygen Therapy uses 100-percent medical grade oxygen at increased
atmospheric pressure to nourish all tissues and allow the body to
heal itself naturally.”
Arata and De Monte are hopeful the treatments can return their
daughter to the fast-developing youngster they once knew.
Before the accident, Thea had begun to say a few words, including
“mama” and “dada.”
“She knew where her nose and mouth were,” Arata said. “She was a
very smart little girl, very full of energy.”
And of independence.
At younger than 2 years old, Thea insisted upon feeding herself,
Arata said.
Thea has yet to regain her voice, but Arata is hopeful that more
treatments will lead to more progress.
The experimental treatments are not covered under Thea’s basic
Medicaid insurance policy, which Arata hopes to be able to upgrade.
Just a normal kid — Thea De Monte helps decorate a pumpkin. She was
an energetic toddler before
a near-drowning in January 2017.
PHOTO COURTESY OF TIFFANY ARATA
“She can start treatments toward the end
of January, but the full eight weeks, with the money I have saved, I
don’t know if I’m gonna have the whole $5,400 for all 40
treatments,” Arata said. “Medicaid pays for Pavilion, but the
primary wouldn’t cover the treatments.”
Arata works full time as a certified nursing assistant at DeBary
Health and Rehabilitation Center. Recently, she took a second job as
a CNA at John Knox Village.
An online fundraiser has garnered only $475 of a $20,000 goal.
Since starting the second job to earn money for more hyperbaric
treatments, Arata has been forced to scale back her visits with Thea
from at least five to three times weekly.
Those less-frequent visits, however, have become more rewarding.
“I feel like she recognizes me,” Arata said. “When I go in and say
hi, she puts on this big smile. She follows you with her eyes.”
Arata and Thea’s sister, Aria, 4, live with Arata’s parents,
Clifford and Becky Arata, in Orange City.
She and De Monte had separated before the accident. Caring for their
older daughter and meeting Thea’s special needs have taken a
significant financial toll.
De Monte, who introduces himself on Facebook as “a father first,”
responded graciously to The Beacon’s request to help tell the
family’s story.
Between his comments, a deep sorrow lurked.
But asked how the hyperbaric therapy has helped, De Monte responded
without hesitation.
“Oh, they’ve just done wonders for her!” he said, emotion flooding
his words.
Mary Adamson, risk manager at DeBary Health and Rehabilitation
Center, marvels at Arata’s strength, perseverance and outlook.
“She comes to work every day, always so upbeat and positive,”
Adamson said.
How?
“I don’t really sleep, and I’m exhausted,” Arata said, laughing.
“But I gotta do, unfortunately, what I gotta do.”
“My parents help a lot, thankfully,” she added.
A perpetual smile lightens the heavy words describing her reality.