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| Dunnigan family finally together |
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Sunday, May 7, 2006
By CHARLES BOOTHE - Bulletin Staff Writer
Greeted by classmates chanting "Mighty Morgan" and with many of those students' parents fighting back tears, Morgan Dunnigan's plane landed at the Blue Ridge Regional Airport in Spencer Friday morning, bringing the 6-year-old home for the first time since early in December.
Her parents, Colin and Laura Dunnigan of Martinsville, exited the plane and helped Morgan into a wheelchair as the other students in her Carlisle School first-grade class waited to speak with her, classmates who at one time feared she may not be able to speak again.
But Morgan does speak and all the students quickly gathered around her as the adults thoughtfully backed away and allowed the children to renew a familiar bond.
That bond took a frightening turn in December when doctors at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center discovered Morgan had a tumor in her spinal cord.
Surgery was necessary since Morgan was in horrific pain and had started losing feeling and movement in her extremities. On Dec. 12, doctors removed 98 percent of the tumor.
"We very honestly worried whether we would see her alive again," said her father, Colin Dunnigan, in a January article about the surgery.
Recovering from the surgery, though, turned out to be one of many against-the-odds steps "Mighty Morgan" would take as the surgery left her with breathing and feeding tubes, paralysis and a highly uncertain future.
On Jan. 10, Morgan left the medical center and went to the Kennedy Krieger Institute in Baltimore to undergo rehabilitation. During the ensuing months, Morgan began to heal, slowly but surely, gradually gaining control of her body.
The return home was the culmination of several months of hard work, with many busy days, said her father on Friday at a lunch reception for Morgan and her classmates at Chatmoss Country Club following the reception at the airport. He said her day started at about 8:30 a.m. and went until 4:30 p.m., with physical, occupational and speech and language therapies.
"She said she would walk out of the hospital," Laura Dunnigan said. "I didn't think that was obtainable at all. But she did."
Colin Dunnigan, upper division director and college counselor at Carlisle, said Morgan uses a walker, taking one small step at a time, but "could walk right out of here (the club)" with it.
And she's still facing a lot of physical and occupational therapy, he said, as well as routine trips to the doctor for follow-up MRIs (Magnetic Resonance Imgaing, a type of x-ray).
"Our routines will be very different (than before Morgan's illness)," he said. "The mornings will be earlier and the nights will be later."
But, he added, no one is complaining about that because the family is finally back together at home again. "We're just happy to be back together," he said. "That's what's exciting. It's a wonderful feeling, overwhelming."
And he's not complaining about the ordeal his whole family has had during the last few months.
While he and his wife were in Baltimore with Morgan, Laura Dunnigan's parents, the Rev. Russ Ingersoll and Pat Ingersoll, took care of their other child, Conner, who is now 19 months old.
"When I left he was taking a bottle and had no teeth," Laura Dunnigan said, holding Conner tightly. "Now, he doesn't need a bottle and he has teeth. We have missed him."
While Laura has spent almost all the last four months in Baltimore, Colin Dunnigan said he was there during January and February but came back to work in March.
The Dunnigans said support of family, friends and the community made the difference in being able to stay in Baltimore, trying to make life as routine as possible for Morgan.
That support, Colin Dunnigan said, has been "unreal. I don't know what more I could say (in thanking people) ... the school, friends, even people we have never met or heard of. It's beyond anything we could have imagined."
The Morgan Dunnigan Fund was set up by family friends shortly after the Dunnigans left for Baltimore. By Jan. 19, the fund had raised almost $90,000 to help offset the expenses involved.
That total recently topped $130,000.
On this day, though, the attention was on Morgan, as her friends kept stopping by her table at lunch, chatting with her, rubbing her head and telling her how happy they were to have her back.
"I feel really good," Morgan said sipping lemonade from a cup that she firmly grasped with both hands, a task that seemed an almost unachievable goal just a couple of months ago. "This is fun."
"It's great to have her here," said classmate Emilee Aaron. "We've missed her."
"I couldn't wait to see her," said another classmate, Andrew Raines.
Colin Dunnigan said Morgan is using a "power-assisted" wheelchair, which gets her around well but she still must use some of her own strength to push and turn the wheels before the power kicks in. That provides her mobility, he said, and also makes sure she keeps using her muscles.
"She had a little apprehension about being in a wheelchair, about being accepted," he said, but those fears seemed to be allayed as her classmates kept her busy talking.
Dunnigan said Morgan can do many of the basic things, including feeding herself, and the skills are regained step by step.
But having those fundamental skills is "a huge change" from just a couple of months ago, he said. "The steady progress she's making is readily evident."
Morgan's teacher, Margaret, said Morgan is returning to class on Tuesday, and everyone is excited about that.
"We'll be getting ready for the Spring Fair (set for Saturday)," she said.
Morgan said she's also excited about returning to school, and studying her favorite subject. "I like math," she said with a smile.
Simon Owens-Williams, headmaster of Carlisle School, was excited as well.
"We've been waiting for this day," he said. "It's a big day. How nice it's going to be for all of them (the Dunnigan family) to be under one roof again as a family."
Colin Dunnigan said he was excited about being able just to have meals together as a family "in our own house."
For Laura Dunnigan, just being with her son is a blessing, she said. "This is fabulous. (Being with him) makes it more special to be home."
"This is what we've been dreaming about for a long time," Colin Dunnigan said.
Maybe Owen-Williams summed up the day's events best shortly after the Dunnigans' plane arrived.
"What a lovely day," he said. "What a lovely, lovely day." |
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