Lehi girl returns home after months in hospital following dangerous infection

LEHI, Utah — A 12-year-old Lehi girl is home after spending nearly two months in the hospital fighting a deadly type of bacteria that is resistant to several antibiotics.

Tom Parkin lights up when describing his 12-year-old daughter, Diana.

“Diana is a wonderful person,” he said, “very smart, very kind.”

Parkin explained how Diana was coming into her own and enjoying the summer when everything changed two months ago.

“At the beginning of June, she came down with a muscle spasm, a pulled muscle in her back after she had gone swimming,” said Parkin.

For two weeks, Diana’s pain wouldn’t go away.

“It wasn’t until we went to urgent care and then the emergency room where they diagnosed it as MRSA infection that had caused pneumonia in both of her lungs,” Parkin said.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, MRSA usually spreads in the community by contact with those infected or items that are carrying the bacteria. They estimate MRSA is responsible for more 70,000 severe infections and 9,000 deaths per year.

Diana would ultimately be airlifted to Primary Children’s Hospital.

“She was in a coma for basically two-and-a-half weeks and then she woke up from that, moving her head to ‘Eye of the Tiger’ from Survivor,” Parkin explained. “That was nice to see, but she had to regain her breathing ability, had to finally lose the breathing tube and then work physically on all of the muscle atrophy.”

In all, Diana spent a total of 55 days in the hospital while undergoing several surgeries to insert tubes in her lungs and to remove her spleen.

On Monday night, Parkin said his daughter was finally able to return home. As she recovers, the soon-to-be seventh grader at Viewpoint Middle School will have to participate in virtual learning from home.

Luckily, the Alpine School District has provided virtual and remote options for all students even before the pandemic. Since then, district officials say those programs have changed and grown with the need for them.

“We’ll connect the students with the teacher and often their parents and help them with any work that they need; provide tutoring, provide instruction but also just help them with any of their needs,” explained Blaine Edman, administrator of technology with the district.

Edman estimates the district had around 400 students, K-thru-8th grade that did school fully-virtual last year.

“We want them to have a sense of normalcy,” he said, “we want them to have a sense of routine and most of all we want relationships.”

The program is a took Parkin says he’s grateful to have as Diana continues her recovery.

“She’s a very good scholar, it’s important to us that she stays on path.”