WK6 Current Events
22 November 2012
My current events article for this week is titled “Edwarda O’Bara, who spent 4 decades in a coma, dies at 59” by the Obituaries page on MiamiHerald.com dated 22 November 2012. The author narrates the story of Edwarda O’Bara, a 59 year old woman who spent 40 years in a diabetic coma and was always taken care of by her family. The article provides a back story in which it describes the life lived by Ms. O’Bara and her family since her fall into the diabetic coma during her teenage years.
In the article, Ms. O’Bara’s mother, Kaye O’Bara, was described as a mother “who continued to care for Edwarda, always saying she was a blessing, not a burden, no matter the piling debts and difficulties.” This was a result of a promise which Kaye O’Bara made to her daughter on the night when Ms. O’Bara lost consciousness. In 1970, Ms. O’Bara fell ill and was rushed to the hospital. At the hospital, Ms. O’Bara fell into her diabetic coma. Before losing consciousness, Ms. O’Bara asked her mother to never leave her side. Kaye O’Bara kept her promise until the night of her death in 2008 where she died in her sleep at the bedside of her daughter.
After Kaye O’Bara’s death, Ms. O’Bara sister, Colleen O’Bara, assumed responsibility for her sister’s care. Ms. O’Bara is quoted throughout as saying “She taught me so much, and I’m talking about now, after she was in the coma”. Apparently, this was true to many people from across the country and even the world. Throughout the forty years of her coma, Ms. O’Bara had many visitors who arrived at her home during her birthday as well as random days to provide support to Ms. O’Bara and her family. This fanfare was brought about by author Dr. Wayne Dyer who wrote the book A Promise Is A Promise: An Almost Unbelievable Story of a Mother’s Unconditional Love and What It Can Teach Us.