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H1N1 Teen in Coma Survives, Despite Doctor Prognosis

OAKLAND — Tiffany Lee, 16, is the worst-case swine flu scenario every doctor fears. On July 7, she started to cough and feel dizzy. “I thought it was allergies,” she says from her hospital bed.

Two days later, her parents took her to a local hospital, where doctors first said she was fine and sent her home. When she returned July 9, they said she had pneumonia and sent her in an ambulance straight to Children’s Hospital Oakland, where she has spent the past 116 days.

The next three months are a blur to Tiffany, a quiet girl from Concord, Calif., with hints of a smile on her tired face.

“I couldn’t breathe: I remember that a couple of times,” Tiffany says. “It didn’t get better.”

But her father, Steve Adams, remembers every moment. “At one point her temperature hit 110. She was off the chart — it literally didn’t go that high.” Her family helped ice her down, and then she slipped into a coma.

“They told us that night that she wouldn’t survive. But I didn’t accept it. We prayed all night in the parking lot.

“And then in the morning, she opened her eyes, and I knew she had a shot,” he says.

Adams, 39, a home health care worker in Concord, lost his job because he couldn’t leave his daughter. He and his wife basically moved in to her room, staying with her night and day. Another job will have to wait until Tiffany’s ready to leave, he says: “This is what’s important.”

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