Keith Worthington was expected to be at Triumph Hospital in Fargo, a long-term rehabilitation clinic, for up to two months, but his CaringBridge Web site says he is heading home Monday.

Worthington went to the emergency room Oct. 19 with flu-like symptoms and was diagnosed with H1N1, compounded by pneumonia and a bacterial infection. His lungs filled with fluids and suffered damage. A few days before Thanksgiving, his heart stopped beating for three minutes.

He left the pediatric intensive-care unit at MeritCare Children’s Hospital in Fargo on Jan. 7.

Doctors are hopeful Worthington will make a full recovery.

Doctors applied the paddles to Maddy Kidwell's little body over and over and over and over.

Four times in 10 minutes.

Four times before her heart began to beat again.

It was just another unreal moment in a string of unreal moments that had led them from watching their almost 3-year-old daughter play happily on the floor to waiting while she fought for her life.

The H1N1 flu virus that hit Maddy so hard "wasn't even really on my radar," her mom said. She'd told her kids to keep their hands washed and had bought some hand sanitizer. But she didn't get them vaccinated. It didn't seem necessary, she said.

"You never realize how easy it could happen to you."

Maddy's case is extreme, but 229 children have died from H1N1 since August, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. State health officials reported that four of the 39 people in Kentucky who died of H1N1 have been children.

The number of cases overall has waned in recent weeks, but CDC officials expect another surge as the nation enters what is typically flu season.

Dr. Philip Bernard, who treated Maddy at Kentucky Children's Hospital, said H1N1 is "a completely preventable disease because there is vaccine available."

Parents, he said, should keep that in mind.

"The vast majority of children (who contract H1N1) are going to be very sick and miserable for a few days, then recover," said Bernard, an associate professor of pediatrics at the University of Kentucky School of Medicine.

But, he said, "there is a small majority of children who are going to be severely affected."

Children like Maddy.

The Kidwells' ordeal began after a family trip to Ohio on Oct. 18. Maddy had seemed fine on the trip and as they started for home. But mile after mile, as the family went home to Somerset, Maddy started to fade. Then, from the back seat, her 13-year-old brother, Jordan, screamed: "Maddy! Maddy!"

"She was in a full-blown seizure," Edith Kidwell said.

They called 911, and the paramedics examined her. She was a little anemic but should be OK, they said. They were told to call the family doctor. Maddy checked out fine with the family physician, although she had a bit of a fever. Shortly after the family got home from that doctor's visit, though, she had another seizure.

Bernard said children can sometimes have seizures as their temperatures change rapidly. It doesn't always mean something more serious is happening. This time, though, the Kidwells were told they should go to Kentucky Children's Hospital.

It was a long ride, Kidwell said.

At first, doctors thought Maddy might have meningitis, but they quickly determined she had the flu.

"I was just ballistic, just going crazy," said Edith, the more talkative of Maddy's parents. "I couldn't figure out why my baby was doing this with her being so healthy besides allergies.

"I was just numb."

Things kept getting worse. Maddy developed staph pneumonia. That's what affected her lungs and heart so severely that she had to be resuscitated. After that, she spent three weeks sedated and on a ventilator.

"We were really worried daily about whether she was going to make it," said Bernard, the physician. "It's very rare to have a child recover from having her heart stop."

"There were several little babies that passed away because of the flu" while Maddy was in the hospital, Kidwell said.

After about three weeks on the ventilator, Maddy improved. But those weeks had undone much of what she'd learned in her short life. She had trouble talking and eating and walking, and she had to have several weeks of physical therapy at Cardinal Hill Rehabilitation Hospital before she could go home.

Originally, the family was told she might be at Cardinal Hill as long as two months, but she was released after 10 days. From beginning to end, she was under care for 45 days.

She made it home in time for her birthday on Dec. 20, when she got an Elmo microwave, a Dora the Explorer backpack and a Big Wheel.

She is back on target, walking and talking as if nothing ever happened. Her parents, however, are still recovering from the shock of the whole thing.

"You never dream about it and feel sorry for the other families and wish, 'God, I hope this never happens to me,' and then it happens," Edith Kidwell said.

Bernard said he hopes the Kidwells' story will remind people to take flu seriously, whether it's the seasonal variety or H1N1, and consider vaccination.

"The take-home message is, why would you want to subject your children from ever getting into this situation" when vaccine is available? he said.

Bernier believes he was used as a "tool" to explain to people the importance of prayer and faith.

CAMAS, Wash. -- A severe case of the H1N1 swine flu virus nearly killed a Camas father of five. 

Tom Trautman came down with flu-like symptoms last November. The 45-year-old was initially diagnosed with pneumonia and treated with antibiotics.

But his condition continued to decline. Becky Trautman, Tom's wife, recalled him saying something was wrong; he just "was not getting better" and told her, "I can't breathe."

Days before Christmas Tom wound up in a medically-induced coma, in intensive care and by all accounts, near death.

"I was scared to death," Becky said. "I felt like he was dying - I did."

Tom's lungs began to fail and his physician, Dr. Andy Michaels, informed Becky and other family members that the odds of him surviving were about 10 percent.

"I didn't think it was likely he was going to survive," the Legacy Emmanuel Hospital trauma surgeon told KGW.

Becky and her five children feared the worst but continued at Tom's bedside, praying for him to pull through, keeping him company and even playing music into his ears.

"I just told him I loved him, and to fight. I'd open his eyes so I could see him," telling her husband, "'I can't wait for you to wake up,'" Becky recalled.

With few other treatments remaining, Dr. Michaels decided to treat Tom with a risky, labor-intensive method known as extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, or ECMO.

By oxygenating Tom's blood for him while his lungs were unable to meet the task, Dr. Michaels saved his life.

"ECMO is simply the process of resting the lungs from the task of putting oxygen in the blood ... the lungs are very sick from infection," Michaels explained.

During the procedure, a patient's blood is removed and oxygen is pumped into it; then, the oxygenated blood is returned to the lungs, the surgeon explained.

ECMO gives the lungs a break from their bodily function - respiration - and in so doing "allows them to heal," he said.

Tom was on ECMO for 13 days. Slowly his condition began to improve and he emerged from the coma. 

After fearing she had lost her husband forever, Becky got the moment she'd been waiting for.

"I'll never forget it," she said. "He had his eyes closed and I walked into the room and I said, 'Tom, I love you' and he opened his eyes and I started bawling."  

Tom still has a long road to recovery. He is still hospitalized and doctors expected him to remain there for at least another month. During his recovery he must relearn the simplest, most monotonous tasks, like toothbrushing. It could be a year before Tom regained the motor sensory skills and function he took for granted just two months ago.

"He's definitely a miracle. It's awesome - there's no other word for it. Awesome."

Medical bills have quickly mounted from the expensive, experimental procedure and during Tom's hospitalization.

The Trautmans have established a fund to assist with those expenses along with food and living costs for Becky and the five children - and also including Tom - now that he's working toward recovery.

Donations were welcomed at any branch of Wells Fargo Bank and could be made by asking for the Trautman Family Support Fund. The fund's donation account number is 7580230311.