NH woman celebrates first Mother's Day after life-threatening infection during IVF
BOSTON - The name Riya means "graceful singer" in Hindi. And while little Riya Greene isn't necessarily singing at 10 months-old, the sounds she makes are music to her parents' ears. When she wakes up, Priya and Rodney immediately rise to see her-the day's first joy. As excited as Priya is to celebrate her very first Mother's Day, every day as a family is worthy of celebration. "I'm also just so happy that the hard part is behind us," she says holding Riya on her lap.
Priya was in her second round of in vitro fertilization in 2019 when she developed an infection. "I was one of those rare cases. You read all the medical forms and sign your name-there's a one-percent chance," she says describing the odds of an infection during IVF, "I was the one-percent." In fact, the odds of such a complication are likely lower. But Priya knew something wasn't right. It was Easter Sunday, 2019. After a long work week, she assumed that her exhaustion was easily explained. But when she started throwing up and feeling sicker, she called her brother. A doctor in Los Angeles, he reminded her that she rarely called him with any medical concerns and that, if she was feeling that sick, she should go to an urgent care clinic. From urgent care, she was taken to the emergency room at Wentworth Douglass Hospital near their home in Lee, NH. Ultimately, a CAT scan revealed inflammation from pancreatitis-an infection so serious that Priya was rushed via Boston Medflight to Massachusetts General Hospital.
The pancreatic fluid was putting pressure on other organs. After an exploratory surgery, Dr. Peter Fagenholz (Priya calls him "the man who saved my life") removed her spleen, gall bladder, appendix, a significant part of her small intestine and part of her large intestine. Even then, she wasn't out of the woods. In hopes that she would heal properly, she was put on drugs to, essentially, paralyze her. Any movement could have negatively impacted her recovery. She spent a total of five weeks in the ICU.
For Rodney, it was a terrifying time of uncertainty. "They were not very confident that she was going to pull through at that point," he said. Even thinking about it now brings him to tears.
Even when it became clear that Priya would survive, no one knew whether she would be able to live independently. Her body was healing. But she was so weakened by the drugs and weeks without movement that she couldn't lift her feet from her bed. A small victory, at the beginning, was standing up for 30 seconds to a minute. She says she relied on the experts around her and the love of her family (including her brother who came from LA and stayed for months) as she began to think about getting stronger. "At that point, I knew that I had to trust the people around me because mentally I couldn't handle more than someone telling me, 'You're going to walk around the unit three times a day,'" she said. She was weak and overwhelmed.
In early August, she was transferred to Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital in Cambridge (part of the Mass. General Brigham system) for the second time. The first time, she spiked a fever and returned to MGH. Her "care team" at Spaulding saw themselves in Priya, a young, active, vibrant woman determined to regain her strength and her life.
Registered Dietician Ginny Cassidy remembers Priya's spirit. "She flipped the switch," Cassidy said. "It was incredible to watch. I remember she looked at me and said, 'I'm ready.' I was like, OK, let's do this!"
No matter how tired she was, occupational therapist Ritika Trehan says Priya did not stop. She might have needed a break during her efforts to build endurance walking around the hospital and walking stairs, but she didn't quit. Nurse Practitioner Christina Palmieri bonded with Priya over dogs, science and medicine. "It was so easy to talk to her," she remembers. Ginny, who was training for a road race, shared her training stories with Priya who had also been a runner. "I lived vicariously through her training runs. It kept me excited," Priya said. They plan to run Disney World's Princess Marathon together in 2024.
Priya insists that their strength played a critical role in her recovery. As Rodney watched his wife get stronger, his faith in the future grew. "Just seeing her progress from not being able to get out of bed, sitting up on her own, taking the stairs...that was a big walk," he said.
And in fact, when Priya-after more than a month-climbed multiple flights of stairs at Spaulding, her care team was waiting at the top cheering as if she had won the Boston Marathon. They all remember that proud moment fondly.
But it was a moment that came years later that leaves Ginny almost speechless; the day Priya called with the best possible news.
Once Priya left Spaulding on August 6, 2019, she focused on building her strength with walks around her neighborhood. She returned to work. As she felt better, she and Rodney began to talk about their dream of having a family. They had two frozen embryos from IVF but would need someone else to carry their baby. During the pandemic, finding a surrogate was almost impossible. They investigated adoption in the foster care system. But given the constraints of COVID, the process seemed overwhelming. Priya shared information about their experience with her friends in the neighborhood. They worked out together virtually, took walks, and talked.
One day, one of those neighbors offered the gift that changed Priya and Rodney's life. Libby Valdaro, a mother of two, offered to carry their baby. Priya remembers the kindness of the offer-a gesture "beyond words"-and, as someone loath to ask for help, considered the immensity of what Libby had proposed.
Priya and Rodney wanted to be sure that their friendship with Mike and Libby wouldn't change. And after weeks of thought, accepted Libby's offer. The very first embryo "took" and became the beautiful baby girl who is Riya Ann Greene. Ann is Libby's middle name.
Riya was born on July 29, 2022. Looking at her smile, Priya and Rodney feel a joy they are eager to share. Days before Mother's Day, Rodney couldn't be more proud of his wife. What does he want Riya to know about her mom? "Just how strong she is and just how much she wants her," he said. "How happy she is for her to be here."
