LENOX RODEO OUTSLUGGED
The 69th annual Lenox Rodeo begins Thursday. Admission this year is $10 for adults and $5 for children. See more information on page 12A.
The Creston baseball team’s postseason run ended Monday evening in a 14-4 loss to Glenwood. The Panthers say goodbye to seven seniors. Read more on this story in SPORTS, page 7A. >>
creston
News Advertiser
SHAW MEDIA GROUP SERVING SW IOWA SINCE 1879 BREAKING NEWS COVERAGE AT WWW.CRESTONNEWS.COM
TUESDAY, JULY 22, 2014
Perseverance through adversity ■
Editor’s note: This is the
first of a two-part series about the stroke and recovery of OrientMacksburg graduate Daniel Barnett, his wife Ann and their twin sons Jason and Clinton.
Daniel Barnett, his wife Ann and their twin boys Clinton and Jason are glad to be back home in Bethany, Mo., after Daniel suffered a stroke from a brain clot on Jan. 6.
By JAKE WADDINGHAM
CNA associate editor jwaddingham@crestonnews.com
M
issouri State Trooper Daniel Barnett ended his shift just after 11 p.m. Jan. 5 and returned home to Bethany, Mo., where his wife Ann — who was seven months pregnant with twin boys — was already asleep. The 2004 Orient-Macksburg graduate and track and field standout had been on the force for three and a half years and had worked many late shifts similar to that night. He crawled into bed and slept until about 4:30 a.m. Jan. 6. “I woke up and there was nothing on the right side,” Daniel said. “No pain. I had just lost the right side.” Daniel had suffered a brain clot on the left side of his brain causing him to have a stroke, hindering his speech and mobility on his right side. For the next two months, Daniel bounced between intensive care units and hospital rooms fighting for his life. Since then, he is working to regain the motor skills the incident had stripped away and find normalcy in a new daily routine that revolves around the couple’s twins, Jason and Clinton, and his rehab.
Assessing the damage After being rushed to Kansas City in an ambulance, Daniel had surgery to remove the blood clot from the left side of his brain around 7 a.m. Jan. 6. “But it wasn’t long after that he started to decline,” Ann, a 2004 Creston High School graduate, said. “They would ask, ‘Where are you?’ and he couldn’t tell them or they would say, ‘Raise your arms,’ and he couldn’t raise the right arm as much.” The doctors performed another CT scan as a precaution and found the spot on the left side of Daniel’s brain had re-clotted. He was prepped and sent back to surgery soon after the discovery. “When they took it (the clot) out
Contributed photo
Daniel Barnett, a 2004 OrientMacksburg graduate, is a Missouri State Trooper. He had been on the force for three and a half years before a brain clot and stroke on Jan. 6. Daniel said his motivation in rehab is to eventually be able to drive again and return to work.
CNA photo by JAKE WADDINGHAM
the second time, they must have nicked the vessel, or something, and it was already weakened (from the first clot) so his brain began to bleed,” Ann said. “The extra blood caused a lot of the damage.” The extra blood caused Daniel’s brain to swell, forcing doctors to put a drain tube into his skull. He was kept heavily sedated for several days to allow the swelling to subside. Meanwhile, Ann’s and Daniel’s parents had arrived at the hospital. The two families — who have grown close through their membership at First Baptist Church in Creston and the marriage of their children — went to work pulling shifts to stay with Daniel and try to keep Ann from over exerting her-
self while carrying the twins. “At that point, we felt it was important to be there at all times,” Daniel’s mother Deloris Barnett said. The Missouri State Troopers added support by keeping at least one trooper present at all times for the first 72 hours after Daniel’s incident. Ann said the outpour of support from family, friends and coworkers was appreciated and encouraging, but the timeline of Daniel’s recovery made it hard to accept the kind gestures. “All we knew was Daniel was going to be there for an indefinite time, so we told them you do not need to put your lives on hold for this,” Ann said.
But when reality set in as the days turned into weeks in the hospital with Daniel, Ann said it was that showmanship of love and kindness that helped get her through. “There were days in the hospital where I thought I should really be miserable right now,” Ann said. “I should be hopeless and really worried and scared, but I never felt that. I think I had a couple moments where I was really, really sad or scared, but I could count those on one hand. I just remember thinking I have to be this calm because I have people praying for me, because there is no other way I could be getting through this.”
Road to recovery While waiting for the brain swelling to go down, Daniel and Ann’s family continued to be at the hospital as often as possible to support their children. “There was a time period when he was not registering yet that the right side didn’t work like it used to,” Deloris said. “We made sure that someone was there in Daniel’s room at all times just to be there to help and encourage him.” Daniel’s father, Dale, his brothers Dave and Dean and Ann’s father, Dr. Dan Walker, all helped out by taking overnight shifts to stay with Daniel.
The tube used to drain Daniel’s brain was able to come out Jan. 13 and he was able to move out of the ICU Jan. 18. By Jan. 22 he made another room upgrade to rehab. As Daniel started to recover, Ann was able to stay at a home nearby the hospital in Kansas City at night so she could sleep in a comfortable bed. “I tried to help make sure she was taking care of herself,” Ann’s mother Susan Walker said. The plan had been to have the twins in Maryville, Mo., but with Daniel in Kansas City recovering, Susan helped shuttle Ann to checkups. “We had to go back to the house (in Bethany) and she had a hard time going back into the house,” Susan said. “It was still like they had left it the night the paramedics had come to take Daniel to the hospital, so it brought back all the real memories of everything that was happening.” Daniel had been taken out of the intensive care unit and was starting his speech, occupational and physical rehab assignments. The first sessions focused on balance and simple tasks like safely getting up out of bed. The therapists worked on training Daniel’s muscles to work the correct way so he could rebuild the strength he lost. “It was hard, but I didn’t have another choice,” Daniel said. “If I wanted to walk again, I had to practice.” Daniel experienced a small hiccup in his recovery when his appendix flared, forcing doctors to take him back into surgery to remove it Feb. 12. By Valentine’s Day Daniel was back in his rehab room and was able to attend an ultrasound session with Ann where they learned the boys were healthy and had grown to more than five pounds each.
Clinton and Jason The morning of Feb. 21, Ann went in to have an ultrasound during a checkup for the twins. “The tech said, ‘Are your bags packed?’ and I said it is in the car,” Ann said. “She said, ‘Good, because you are going to have these Please see BARNETT, Page 2
Celebrity beef show:
Sara Bolinger with Napa Auto Parts in Creston participates in the Celebrity Beef Show Monday evening at the Union County Fair in Afton. Pictured behind is Jake Samo of Hometown Insurance dressed as Willie Robertson from Duck Dynasty. The winner of this year’s costume contest at the celebrity beef show went to Ella Turner, Caitlin Bruce, Kennedy Strider and McKennah Whittington of American Family Insurance in Creston.
Sydney Dunphy with Highland Highlights 4-H Club had a busy day at the Union County Fair with the swine show and sheep show Monday. She is pictured here with her grand champion market sheep.
CNA photo by KYLE WILSON
WEDNESDAY WEATHER
95 67
crestonnews.com | online 641-782-2141 | phone 641-782-6628 | fax Follow us on Facebook
COMPLETE WEATHER 3A
PRICE 75¢
Creston News Advertiser 503 W. Adams Street | Box 126 Creston, IA 50801-0126
Copyright 2014
CONNECT WITH US
Volume 131 No. 36
2014
If you do not receive your CNA by 5 p.m. call 641-782-2141, ext. 6450. Papers will be redelivered in Creston until 6:30 p.m. Phones will be answered until 7 p.m.
FREE DIAGNOSTIC TESTING AND CONSULTATION FREE HEARING EVALUATION CRESTON LOCATION 319 W ADAMS
641-782-2494
12 IOWA LOCATIONS: ASIAUDIOLOGY.COM/LOCATIONS