On Wednesday, December 12, 2001, my daughter Melony was involved in a very minor auto accident. She had a 1 1/2 inch cut on her eyelid. It was bleeding so she was taken to the emergency room and instead of stitches they used derma bond or whatever that medical super glue is. She walked out of the hospital joking that she got out of work for a couple of days for that. The doctors did say because she had hit her head and face on the steering wheel that there could be bruising and that it would get worse before it got better. By early evening, her face was starting to swell. Her husband picked her up and they went home. About 11:00 p.m. She called me and said she had a horrible headache and I told her to go back to the hospital and I would meet her there. She was in a lot of pain and did spend till early morning in the emergency room. She again returned to my home for the day while her husband went to work. About 11:00 a.m. she got up and she was running a fever of 103 and I called the emergency room. Remember we were told it would get worse before it got better. The nurse at the e-room told me to give her Tylenol and if that didn't help bring her in. Well the Tylenol helped with the fever but by now both eyes were swollen closed and her whole face was swollen out of shape. She stayed with me for the night because they live in the country and if she needed to go back to the hospital my house was closer. I was very uncomfortable and by Friday morning I called my doctor and made an appointment. Melony got up from bed and changed clothes getting ready to go to the doctor. After getting ready, she went back to bed and she called me and said her legs felt like they were on fire and they felt numb. I went to the phone and called 911. When the paramedics came they could not get a blood pressure. Melony was not talkative but could mumble answers when questioned.

After arriving at the hospital, no blood pressure could be found. She remained at our local hospital with every doctor coming in for a consult. Maybe there was a blockage of the main vein to the neck because by this time her neck was so swollen that the necklace she was wearing was cutting into her neck. The hospital staff finally decided to airlift her to a trauma hospital in Seattle. Melony arrived a Harbour View and again the staff went into action not knowing what was going on. Sepsis was the first words. Then everything started to shut down. She had a blood infection and nothing seemed to help. Finally our family was assembled and we were told that a specialist was being brought in and that all of her neck tissue from one ear to the other was dead and they were going in to remove it. The surgery was started and some time later we were again assembled and told the bad news that Necrotizing Fasciitis had eaten all the neck tissue into the neck mussel and into the chest and chest muscle tissue and into the stomach.

We had to let her go. There was nothing to even hope for. On Friday, December 15, less than 60 hours after her minor accident, Melony Jean Yates went to be with the Lord. She was 25 years old. She left behind a husband of 5 years, daughter Kaylie 6 ½ years old, son Dakin, who would turn 2 in a week and daughter Allison, who was 6 months old. She left behind mom and dad, a sister and a brother, nieces and nephews, great grandma's and grandpa’s. It has been 1 1/2 years and there are days when I can't believe this has happened. From what I have read, I have found out that NF in the neck and face area is very rare. So much for being rare.