by MATTHEW NASH
Sequim Gazette

Community members are rallying again to support Yvonne Sayer, 28, of Sequim, and her two children.

Sayer was hospitalized April 16 after being diagnosed with pneumonia. Her kidneys began to fail and she suffered a massive heart attack. Her mother, Stephanie Sayer, said her daughter developed acute respiratory distress syndrome, or ARDS, a condition in which fluid builds up in air sacs, preventing oxygen flowing into blood.

 

“She’s a healthy, young, 28-year old woman,” Ashley Elias, Sayer’s sister, said. “She’s definitely gone through quite a bit, but she’s persevered. It’s a miracle that she’s alive. What probably should have killed her, didn’t.” Sayer doesn’t have medical insurance, but she and her family are working with a social worker to find options.

 

The “Yvonne Sayer Children’s Fund” was established at all First Federal branches to help with medical and family expenses.

 

Sayer and her two children lost all their possessions in a house fire Jan. 7, 2010, on Fir Street. Sayer’s family was still recovering from the death of her fiancé and father of her two children, Travis Klink, who died March 2009.

 

She has worked at Kettel’s 76 on Washington Street for about a year. Business owner Denise Kettel said Sayer is irreplaceable.

 

“She’s a wonderful worker and I hope we get her back. Customers are very concerned,” Kettel said.

 

Sayer was at Harrison Medical Center in Bremerton despite being taken off a ventilator on April 27 after 10 days.

 

She’s now in care of her mother, Stephanie Sayer, who said the family got a special Easter treat on April 24.

 

“She was off her medication for about an hour and I was talking to her when she opened her eyes real wide. I told the kids to talk to their mom. They said they loved her,” Stephanie said.

 

“Tears came down her cheek. We knew that was the turning point.”

 

“We’re elated. She’s got a lot of people in Sequim who love her,” Stephanie said. “God’s done a lot for us.

She’s a young mom and a fighter. She’d fight to stay with her babies.”

 

Reach Matthew Nash at mnash@sequimgazette.com.