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Special
Feature: Choosing to Live
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Images to Enlarge
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Evening
News photo by VALERIE TOBIAS
Charity is learning to maneuver her prosthetic
arms and hands to accomplish intricate tasks,
such as buckling a seat belt. “I know she’s
figured out how to do something because she
stops asking me to do it,” her sister, Beverlee,
said.
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Evening
News photo by VALERIE TOBIAS
Charity’s
sister, Beverlee, applies eyeliner along Charity’s
lashline before a recent outing. Charity usually
applies her own makeup, but has a little trouble
with the finer application of eyeliner and mascara.
I poke my eye,” she said.
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Evening
News photo by VALERIE TOBIAS
Charity
talks to a friend from her temporary home in
Saline. Charity, her sister Beverlee and her
mother Connie moved from Monroe to Saline to
be closer to University of Michigan Hospital.
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Evening
News photo by VALERIE TOBIAS
Charity
shows one of the University of Michigan Hospital
rehabilitation specialists her progress in climbing
stairs. With determination and time, she hopes
to someday conquer this difficult task. “I can
do it, but it takes me a while,” Charity said.
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Evening
News photo by VALERIE TOBIAS
Charity
has several major goals, including taking a
shower without help from her sister or mother.
In order to bathe, she must remove her prosthetics.
Charity hopes to get an apartment by herself
in Monroe soon.
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Evening
News photo by VALERIE TOBIAS
Without
hands or feet, Charity Dorman must relearn how
to do the simplest activities and accept that
there are some things she can’t do for herself.
Her sister, Beverlee Riddle, or mother, Connie
Riddle, help her in the shower
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Evening
News photo by VALERIE TOBIAS
Charity
brags that she used to have excellent penmanship,
and practices diligently to regain her writing
skills with her prosthetic arms and hands.
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Choosing
to live Part 1: The Storm
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Monroe
native battles illness while stunned family members rush
to a Toledo-area hospital |
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| Choosing
to live Part 2: The Choice |
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Charity
Dorman, stricken by bacterial meningitis, has to make
a decision -have part of her legs and arms amputated or
die. Part 2 or a four-part series. |
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| Choosing
to live Part 3: The Struggle |
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Part
3: Charity Dorman begins rehabilitation - then a crisis
hits. |
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| Choosing
to live Part 4: The Gift |
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Family
provides a new beginning. Charity's transplant brings
independence. |
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Evening
News photo by VALERIE TOBIAS
Charity
Dorman has a positive attitude and extraordinary
aspirations. She intends to drive a car
someday, live on her own, and work as a
volunteer mentor to people contending with
an organ transplant or amputation.
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Evening
News photo by VALERIE TOBIAS
Charity
raises her arms in victory after a long
struggle to put on her sweatshirt after
a blood test at the hospital. "If you do
it, I'll buy you a hamburger," coaxed her
sister Beverlee from the other side of the
room. Beverlee is a source of constant encouragement
for her older sister. "She always says,
do it yourself," Charity said, laughing.
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Evening
News photo by VALERIE TOBIAS
Charity
gets a hug from one of the nurses that helped
her during her long stay in rehabilitation
at University of Michigan Hospital. With
damp eyes and smiles, medical personel took
turns hugging their miracle girl during
a recent visit. "In 23 years of nursing,
I've never seen anyone like Charity. Just
beautiful," one nurse said.
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Evening
News photo by VALERIE TOBIAS
Charity
breezes by the wheelchair sitting in the
corner of her bedroom. Now that she is perfectly
mobile on her prosthetic legs, the idle
wheelchair's primary function is to collect
Charity's clothes.
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Evening
News photo by VALERIE TOBIAS
Beverlee
gives Charity her once-weekly shot of a
medicine that maintains her red blood cell
count. Despite all that she has been through,
Charity still hates getting shots. "I don't
like needles," she said.
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News photo by VALERIE TOBIAS
Charity
and her sister Beverlee and joke around
on the way home from the hospital. Charity
makes weekly visits to University of Michigan
Hospital in Ann Arbor to monitor her kidney
function and medications. Beverlee donated
a kidney to Charity, who had been on dialysis
for nearly a year after meningitis destroyed
her kidneys.
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Story
based on extensive interviews
This
article is based on 30 hours of interviews by reporter
Cynthia Ramnarace with Charity Dorman, members of the
Riddle family and physicians and health care workers
at Toledo Hospital and University of Michigan Health
System, Ann Arbor.
She
also reviewed medical records and visited Toledo Hospital
and University of Michigan Medical Center to gather
details. Research was done using the Meningitis Trust,
UK; National Library of Medicine, and National Foundation
for Infectious Diseases.
Any
conversations among individuals in this story were either
witnessed by the reporter or reconstructed through interviews
with all the participants.
Photographer
Valerie Tobias documented Charity's life by accompanying
her to doctor's visits and spending two consecutive
days observing Charity's day-to-day life. Photographs
from before Charity's illness were provided by
her family.
The
four part series:
Part
1 : The storm
Charity
Dorman is stricken suddenly. Her family rushes to be
with her, buffeted by warnings from doctors that there
is a good chance she will die.
Part
2 : The choice
Treatments
to battle the meningitis have worked, but have left
a life-or-death choice. Does she choose to live life
with profound disabilities or to give in to the disease
that has ravaged her body?
Part
3 : The struggle
Charity
must learn to use a body that has become foreign to
her.
Part
4 : The gift
A
donated kidney brings Charity closer to being healthy.
She starts to live again and tries to figure out what
that life will be now.
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04/09/2004
Update
- Congratulations to Cynthia Ramnarace for receiving first
place in the Features category, and Valerie Tobias for
receiving first place and sweepstakes (all divisions)
in the Picture Stories category from the Michigan Associated
Press for coverage of this story.
Click
here to see more award winning photos and stories
by The Monroe Evening News.
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