Country singer-songwriter Rory Feek is recalling the “wake up call” that led to his youngest daughter being airlifted to a hospital.
The “Some Beach” writer took to his Substack on Saturday, July 11, revealing that his daughter Indiana had been admitted to an Austin children’s hospital after a health episode that began around 2 a.m. July 9. Feek wrote that Indiana, who has Down syndrome, had been at the same hospital for open-heart surgery two weeks prior.
“It started with a headache in the afternoon, and then a cough in the middle of the night,” Feek, 61, wrote. “Maybe it’s all the years of it just being Indiana and I, but if I hear her make any sounds in the night, I find myself out of bed and running to her room, before I even realize that I’m awake.”
But “The Life I Live” author wrote that the 12-year-old, which he shared with late wife Joey Feek, wasn’t coughing. She was retching and throwing up throughout the night, nearly fainting before passing out completely, with Feek and his wife, Rebecca, not able to wake her back up.
Singer-songwriter Rory Feek discusses his career and new book “This Life I Live” at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum on March 11, 2017, in Nashville.
“I’m not going to go into the moment-by-moment details that led to us to calling 911 — both us holding her in our arms, literally crying, begging for help — but let’s just say that neither Rebecca, nor I, have been as scared in our lives as we were Thursday morning,” he wrote. “I can hardly think it, let alone write it … but we thought we had lost her.”
By the morning, the couple and Indiana were in an ambulance headed to a hospital in Waco, Texas. There, a doctor ordered an echo-cardiogram before deciding to have her airlifted to Austin, Feek wrote. He shared photos of Indiana in a hospital bed and her being transported to a helicopter on the hospital’s roof, as well as the aircraft flying away.
At the hospital in Austin, doctors told the family that following her open-heart surgery, inflammation caused a “huge amount” of fluid to fill up the area around her heart, which was affecting its ability to beat properly, requiring surgery to drain the fluid, Feek continued. He added that Indiana’s heart had swelled to twice the size and “would have felt as if an elephant was sitting on her chest.”
Feek said Indiana should make a “full recovery” and that the family is “more alive” and “morre grateful than ever been before. He called the episode a reminder about “how fragile life is.”
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“Maybe things like this are what it takes for God to get the undivided attention of His people,” Feek concluded. “To get us to truly wake up and see what a gift the life He’s given each of us truly is.”
Rory Feek’s estranged daughters criticize Substack blog on Indiana’s health scare
Feek’s estranged older daughters condemned the Substack post and Feek for taking photos of the health incident. Heidi Feek, in a since-expired Instagram story video, referred to the post as “ongoing exploitation,” US Weekly reported. And Hopie Feek, who has publicly criticized her father multiple times over the years, called it “terrifying and heartbreakingly wrong.”
“I see what I’ve always experienced .. priorities ones focused on what great story to tell and to share next,” she wrote on Instagram July 11. “I see Indy scared and hurt surrounded by strangers being photographed from afar by a parent.”
A day later, Hopie Feek responded to criticism the post received, writing that while she loves “the dad that raised us,” her callouts are “necessary” and that “mistakes were made” in her and sister Heidi’s upbringing. “We want it to be different for Indy!”
She continued, “I don’t post these things to just throw shade, but I think it is important to acknowledge and to bring awareness of the horrors of neglect and over exposure and how it can affects [sic] a child!”
The pair are ensnared in a legal battle with their father, claiming he has cut them off from contacting Indiana.
USA TODAY has reached out to Rory Feek’s rep for comment.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Country musician Rory Feek says daughter was airlifted to hospital as kids slam post