APRIL 17, 2020, KEIZERTIMES, PAGE A7
MIRACLE,
continued from Page A1
Sherwood Park – dressed in
white, full-body coveralls – had
to tell her, “No.”
It was tough to hold back,
but there were many rea-
sons to celebrate. Nikki beat
COVID-19 despite compli-
cations that had Jill contem-
plating funeral services a few
weeks ago.
“Two of her doctors told
me she was an absolute mir-
acle,” Jill said. Nikki’s father
is the late Marty Matiskainen
and Nikki was a regular volun-
teer at Jill’s Gubser classroom
for years.
Nikki, 42, was diagnosed
with multiple sclerosis at 19.
Complications from the dis-
ease had become harder to
manage and she planned to be-
gin living at The Oaks after re-
turning from a surgery in early
March.
“The staff here were won-
derful and she already knew
some of the younger residents.
We came in and decorated her
room with wolves before she
went in for the surgery,” Jill
said.
Nikki checked in to Silver-
ton Hospital for the surgery
in early March and returned
to The Oaks without issue.
Two days later, she was taken
to the emergency room after a
fever spiked and her breathing
became labored. Forty-eight
hours later, Nikki was tested
for COVID-19 and the posi-
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Friends and family turned out to welcome Nikki Matiskainen home Monday, April 13.
tive results were returned three
days after that.
Nikki spent the next 16 days
on a ventilator in the intensive
care unit at Salem Health.
“It got very, very bad,” Jill
said. “She was on dialysis and
her liver was failing. We didn’t
think she would make it.”
Nikki’s condition contin-
ued to deteriorate, but then
her body started, unexpectedly,
fi ghting back.
As her condition improved,
Nikki was moved to a regular
room where she continued
to recuperate. She was met
by friends and family in The
Oaks’ parking lot when she
returned Monday. They held
Keizer church is
donation site for
needed crisis items
hospital stay for surgery.
Regardless of where Nikki
contracted the illness, Jill was
overwhelmed to have reached
the opposite shore in a long,
emotionally draining journey.
“Just being here today, wait-
ing for her to arrive, is such a
relief. When she was in the
ICU, she was very weak and
could barely talk,” Jill said.
“It’s been such a rollercoast-
er of good days and bad days,
and Nikki is just the sweetest
person in the world. Knowing
I will be able to talk to her
soon – knowing she is going
to make it – is amazing.”
Contact the reporter at editor@
keizertimes.com.
signs and balloons and shouted
greetings.
Nikki was still weak, but
managed to hold her own in
a brief conversation with rel-
atives.
The Oaks staff are contend-
ing with one of Oregon’s larg-
est outbreaks of COVID-19 in
a long-term care facility. The
Oregon Department of Hu-
man Services revealed on April
11 that The Oaks was sixth
on the list of nine facilities
with fi ve or more confi rmed
COVID-19 cases. It currently
has 14 ongoing cases of the vi-
rus, but it is not known if Nik-
ki contracted the virus at The
Oaks or sometime during her
CLUB: ‘Everyone is facing
a unique set of obstacles’
(Continued from Page A1)
St. Edward Catholic Church is a now a public donation site
gathering food and household necessities for community mem-
bers, as well as items for community partners that provide assis-
tance to individuals who are experiencing homelessness.
Items will be distributed directly to service providers or
community members from the Health & Human Services food
pantry established as the COVID-19 outbreak began.
Donations will be accepted Mondays and Tuesdays each
week on a continuing basis from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. to help meet
community needs. The church is located at 5303 River Road
N, in Keizer.
The donation site is accepting the following new, unopened
and unexpired items:
• Food (peanut butter, tuna, canned fruit and veggies, oat-
meal, pasta, spaghetti sauce, soups, rice and beans)
• Toilet paper
• Diapers/pull-ups/wipes
• Cleaning supplies (hand soap, dish soap, disinfectant spray,
paper towels, garbage bags and laundry detergent)
• Personal items (feminine hygiene products, body soap,
shampoo, and socks)
• Pet food (dog and/or cat)
• Packaged digital thermometers
• Cloth masks (clean homemade cloth masks are acceptable)
The drive-thru process has been designed with social dis-
tancing measures for the safety of volunteers and the donating
public. Please load items for donation in the back seat or trunk
of your vehicle. Volunteers can then unload the items without
making physical contact with drivers.
For more information, please Marion County at: Health_
Donations@co.marion.or.us.
The club’s Facebook ac-
count features staff-made video
lessons, one of which is Free-
born leading breathing exercis-
es to help manage stress. Other
tips from Freeborn on stress
management include, staying
connected, understanding that
your best does not look the
same as someone else’s best,
take the crisis day by day and
continue to do the things that
make you happy and are im-
portant to you.
One stressor for parents and
kids alike is distance learning.
Most everyone’s work schedule
has been changed because of
COVID-19, some parents are
working more than ever and
some are not working at all.
“Everyone is facing a unique
set of obstacles,” Freeborn said.
The club has been doing its
best to provide for their fami-
lies. In addition to creating sup-
plemental work for the chil-
dren, staff members delivered
Chromebooks and dropped off
packets with school material
and supplies to families of fi rst
responders as well as others in
need.
When the initial shut down
of the schools was announced,
most students were expect-
ing to return to the classroom
and left all their supplies there.
School supplies are now need-
ed by families and the Boys &
Girls Club is accepting dona-
tions to help meet that need.
Freeborn wanted the kids of
the Boys & Girls Club to know
they she and the rest of the staff
miss them.
“We really miss then and we
really care about them and we
can’t wait to see them when
the club opens. We’re here for
them, whether it’s by phone,
email, Facebook, however they
want to get ahold of us,” she
said.
Those interested in donating
can contact Freeborn at mfree-
born@bgc-salem.com.
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FORUM: Testimony via
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would require candidates to
arise from the areas in the city
where they live.
• Changing the way council-
ors are elected from a head-to-
head contests to an alternative
method such as ranked choice
voting. In a ranked choice sys-
tem, voters would rank can-
didates in order of preference
with the top overall picks fi lling
the vacancies.
• Changing the term of city
councilors from four years to
two years.
• Changing how council va-
cancies are approved. Current-
ly if a council offi ce becomes
vacant, the vacancy is fi lled by
appointment and fi nishes out
the remainder of the previous
councilor’s term. Alternately,
the council could send the mat-
ter back to voters in a special
election. Salem’s city council
requires a special election if the
• Wrongful
Death
remaining term of the vacating
councilor is more than a year.
Those wishing to provide
testimony can speak on all
those questions or whichever
ones they choose.
Richard Walsh
• Auto
Accidents
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PLASTIC BAGS, STYROFOAM, AND WAXY CARTONS WERE NEVER RECYCLABLE!
PLEASE KEEP THE FOLLOWING GOOD RECYCLABLES EMPTY, CLEAN AND DRY:
• Cardboard and uncoated greyboard boxes (Shipping & cereal type). No frozen food boxes!
• Print-quality paper - newspaper, junk & office paper, and magazines;
• Tin & Aluminum Cans Only - NO foil, trays, or scrap metal;
• Plastic Bottles and Jugs Only - NO bags, tubs, clamshells, bubble Pak, or other plastics.
©1986
(Continued from Page A1)
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