WISH LIST QUAD-CITIES: Bath chair would make little Malena splash-happy

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By Barb Ickes | Saturday, November 26, 2005 11:00 PM CST | () comments

Jeff Cook/quad-City Times Tony and Jenny Torres cuddle with their daughter, 5-year-old Malena. “We’re all the time fighting to keep her alive,” Tony says of his little girl, who received severe injuries in an accident caused by a drunk driver.

Nobody talks about how long little Malena Torres might live.

For one thing, nobody knows for sure. For another thing, it might be better that way.

Besides, Tony and Jenny Torres have enough on their minds — and their hands.

When their third child, Malena, was only 28 days old, she was in a child safety seat in her mother’s car when a drunk driver rear-ended them. The accident occurred at Brady and 65th streets, Davenport, and police estimate the drunk driver was traveling 55 mph when he rammed into the Torres’ car. There were no skid marks at the scene.

Jenny Torres doesn’t remember the accident, which split open one of her knees and left her with a concussion.

But little Malena, now 5, got the worst of it.

“It’s very similar to what happens with Shaken Baby syndrome,” said Juli Redington, a registered nurse and clinical manager for A-Plus Home Health Care, Moline. “The brain injury is responsible for all these other problems.”

The list of serious problems is long. And Malena has been near death several times. She has gone into liver failure, respiratory distress and, most recently, bouts with pneumonia.

“We’re just scared,” Tony Torres said, holding his little girl’s hand while standing at her bedside at home. “We’re all the time fighting to keep her alive.

“Knowing she could go at any time is really hard,” he said. “Sometimes you get emotional when you look at her.”

Even the emotions are unpredictable. Looking into Malena’s face, with her sparkling eyes and enviably long lashes, it is easy to forget that her mind has been damaged. She smiles easily and is clearly amused by the playful abandon of her sisters and brother.

“She’s just an angel,” her dad said. “She can be in pain, coughing up blood, and still smiling at you.”

After back-to-back bouts with pneumonia over the summer, Malena began needing nursing care at home. Her airway was collapsing, largely because of the absence of muscle in her little system, and she had a tracheotomy.

She’s endured two stomach surgeries relating to feeding tubes and has undergone two hip surgeries. She needs a third.

Her parents are asking Wish List Quad-Cities for a special chair for the bathtub, a favorite place of Malena’s.

“That way, she can kick her feet and splash around,” her mother said. “She loves a bath.”

But getting the girl in and out of the tub has become a hardship for Tony, who stays at home with Malena and the couple’s other three children. He also carries his daughter up the stairs of the family’s split-level home — a true labor of love.

“It’s not easy lifting her, especially out of the tub, because she’s slippery dead weight,” he said.

The family also could use an easy chair for Malena’s bedroom, where her parents spend most of their time. Though Jenny supports the family through her job at Home Depot, she calls Tony every half hour to check in on Malena and the others.

“We live in fear,” Tony said. “We just love her so much.”

— Barb Ickes