Healing time

Frontiersman

MAT-SU — Al Peterson and Jane McNiven met through mutual acquaintances in 1991. Both were involved in other relationships at the time, but nine years later after McNiven divorced, they became a couple. Like many Alaska romances, the great outdoors was the setting for many of their activities.

“Al and I loved to go to remote properties,” McNiven said. “He was a bush pilot and so we’d take his plane out into the wild. We weren’t a couple to sit home and watch TV.”

That changed Oct. 11, 2006. Peterson called McNiven, a teacher at Sherrod Elementary School in Palmer, at work. She was baffled. He never called her at the school.

“It was very unusual,” she said. “He said, ‘I have a bad headache and I need someone to bring me some Tylenol.’ I was in the middle of class, but I called a friend who took him the Tylenol. Later, my friend called me back and said, ‘yeah, he’s sick.’”

That evening, McNiven stopped off to check on Peterson.

“He was coherent, but didn’t want me there in case I got what he had, so I dropped off some soup and crackers, liquids to drink and went home,” she said.

The next morning, McNiven was still concerned. She told Peterson he may be dehydrated and that he should go to the hospital. She brought him to her home and when Friday morning came around, Peterson had no clue where he was. Disoriented and wanting to go to work, McNiven called her friends for assistance.

“He refused to go to the hospital at this point,” she said. “I still assumed he was dehydrated because severe dehydration can cause confusion.”

McNiven and her friends took Peterson to the emergency room at Mat-Su Regional.

“As soon as the doctor saw him, he knew something serious was wrong,” she said.

Physicians performed a CT scan, finding that Peterson had a bleeding aneurysm (a hemorrhage in the brain), and transferred him to Providence Medical Center in Anchorage.

“I sent him by ambulance, came home and called his family in Minnesota,” McNiven said. “I kick myself over and over for not seeing it was something else. What was I thinking?”

McNiven asked Peterson’s brother in Minnesota to come to Alaska. Because the couple hadn’t yet married, McNiven was unable to sign any legal documents at the hospital in Peterson’s place before he was about to undergo brain surgery.

Oct. 14 was a long day, McNiven remembers. Peterson’s operation into his skull took five long hours. During the closing procedure, doctors clipped Peterson’s aneurysm in place, but the clip slipped, impinging on a blood vessel and causing him to suffer a stroke.

“We’ve been recovering ever since,” McNiven said. “It’s been a long road. We’ve gone from Providence Hospital to Providence Extended Care to Saint Elias Specialty Hospital to [Mat-Su] Regional Hospital to assisted living, where’s he been since.”

In the past year, Peterson had a cardiac shunt replaced, experienced hemetoma liquid forming in the void where his stroke took place and endured four more brain surgeries. In May, undergoing another grueling surgery, he had multiple seizures. During recovery, he broke his leg trying to stand up, he broke his leg. In July, he encountered a serious allergic reaction to one of his medications.

Through it all, McNiven has been on edge.

“It’s been steady recovery in the last few months,” McNiven said. “Nothing has happened. Nothing has gone wrong.”

McNiven said she has missed work occasionally and has struggled tending to her teenage children, but she has committed to being there for Peterson, no matter what.

“It’s been kind of tough,” she said. “People started making comments like, ‘I can’t believe you’re still doing this.’ It caught me kind of oddly because I never thought of anything else. When I told Al I was going to commit, I never thought it was temporary. I was kind of thrown back. I am a firm believer that everything happens for a reason.”

McNiven recalls that after Peterson suffered his nearly fatal aneurysm, she received a gift from one of her students at Sherrod Elementary.

“This boy had caught a fly ball at a Miners game, signed it and brought it to me,” she said. “I brought it home, where it just sat there. After Al’s stroke, the nurses wanted him to close his right hand, afraid that it would stay open if he didn’t.”

McNiven had the perfect object for Peterson to open and close his hand around: the baseball.

“He held that ball for nine months. He’d twirl it around and feel the seems. He always looked at [the] signature,” she said. “I would tell [the student] Al’s still holding that baseball and he would be astonished.” T

his summer, Peterson attended the last two Miners home games. What he wasn’t ready for was the warm reception.

“As soon as we puled in, [the student] came running up to us, yelling, ‘Hey Al! How’s it going?’” McNiven said. “Al said, ‘You’re my hero. I read your name so many times on that ball.’ We sat with his parents and the game was excellent.”

A helping hand

After the game, Peterson and McNiven were approached by Ed Stratton, who asked if there was anything he could do for them. McNiven said she was actually looking for a plumber to help turn her single-car garage into an accessible living area for her husband. Stratton spoke to Gary Foster of the Mat-Su Home Builders Association about what could be done for the couple.

Gary Foster, owner of Foster’s Fine Finishes and treasurer for the Mat-Su Home Builders, jumped on board to help.

“I took Ed’s suggestion to the board, knowing this was an excellent community service project,” Foster said.

The board agreed, wanting to bring the couple together and McNiven and Peterson them to start again where they left off.

By September, volunteers were scheduled and calls made to begin the “Peterson Project.” There was a long list of businesses wanting to help the couple out. The volunteers did more than simple plumbing, they converted the garage into a nice space for Peterson that’s accessible for him and his wheelchair throughout the main floor of the house.

“Framer Dan Cooper supplied the frame work, Jeff from Great Northern Homes did the plumbing, Dean James did concrete work, Valley Block and Concrete donated concrete,” Foster said. “Spenard Builder’s Supply donated framing and windows, Andre from AK Floors did the tile work, Jake’s Drywall performed all the drywall work, A1 Insulation performed the insulating, Sylva’s Services did all the electrical work, Sherwin Williams donated the paint and Carpet World is laying all the carpet. It’s quite a mouthful.”

Foster said as a standard job, transforming McNiven’s garage into Peterson’s new living space would have cost roughly $15,000.

“They’re just super people,” Foster said. “It’s good to be a part of a project like this. Good things happen to people who deserve it.”

For Al Peterson, moving into his new home and newly converted garage in the new year will aid his recovery and give him more freedom. McNiven said she is ready to go snowmachining with the man she loves one day, but knows his recovery comes first.

“I want to just keep on recovering in 2008,” Peterson said. “That’s the biggest goal. The therapy drills wipe me out, but I have no other goals for the new year.”

Contact J.J. Harrier at valleylife-@frontiersman.com or 352-2269.