In The News: Crowdfunding site set up for NHS employee

Written by: Seth Gordon, Newberg Graphic

Popular counseling secretary Rebecca Piros has lost more of her vision due to fungal meningitis

The world of Newberg’s Piros family has been turned upside down since late September, when popular NHS secretary Rebecca Piros was hospitalized with a serious case of fungal meningitis.

A crowdfunding page (www.GoFundMe.com/rebeccapiros) has been established to assist the family financially and has already resulted in more than $6,400 in donations over the past month.

However, doctors at Kaiser Permanente Westside Medical Center in Hillsboro recently concluded that significant damage to her vision has already occurred, meaning she will be left blind as a result of the rare infection.

“She will have extremely limited vision, what people would say is legally blind,” husband Gene Piros said.

That news means that the financial burden on her and her husband Gene, who also works at the high school as a custodian, will increase dramatically moving forward. The couple has two children.

According to an update posted by Gene Piros Friday, his wife’s loss of vision will preclude her from returning to work, which in turn will result in a 50 percent reduction in medical benefits. In researching disability benefits, Gene Piros posted that the family will incur a 25-percent drop in monthly income and a 25-percent decrease in retirement options, which were already modest to begin with as the couple has spent 20 years of their lives in volunteer community service.

Additionally, Rebecca Piros’ life has revolved around her work at Newberg High School and that will be taken away from her as well.

“She’s not just losing her vision, she’s losing her community,” Gene Piros said. “The high school has been her community for eight years.”

At first, Piros was mostly comatose, but underwent a six-week course of medication to treat the infection and aside from her vision, has been slowly but steadily improving in recent weeks.

“It is a long treatment and the doctors said she responded well,” Gene said. “It’s a very rare condition, which has a long anti-fungal treatment as the No. 1 choice, so she did respond well to that, thankfully, because it was six weeks for that.”

She was expecting to be transferred to the Rehabilitation Institute of Oregon (RIO) to begin physical and occupational therapy as early as last week, but the lack of improvement in her vision has delayed that.

There was a hope that increased pressure from excess fluid had been temporarily affecting her optic nerve and that her sight might return once that was alleviated.

Unable to transfer her to RIO as long as doctors were continuing to perform pressure-relieving spinal taps, the medical team is now proposing a procedure to keep pressure off the optic nerve and prevent any further damage. That procedure could be performed in the next week or so.

Friend Lisa Gohman, who first met Rebecca Piros when she served as a Girl Scout leader, is hoping the community will continue to support her and her family, especially after the latest news.

“She’s had a big impact on a lot of students’ lives and their families,” Gohman said. “I know that she is loved by people in the community. She just has a really warm personality and is really welcoming to everybody, always cheerful.”

The family is also providing daily updates via a dedicated Facebook page (www.Facebook.com/rebeccapirossupport) and it seems that Rebecca Piros is keeping her spirits high, with a little help from her friends.

A post from Monday night showed her snuggled up in a graphic tiger blanket, which coworkers gave her “to remind me I am still a Newberg Tiger.”

“I really feel the support of everyone and it makes it easier to bear,” Rebecca said in a recent update to the GoFundMe page. “I love this community and miss the kids at the high school.”