Mom, baby were stranded 1,000 miles away. How Beaufort came together to get them home
Rhett Starich had been looking forward to riding on a float in the Beaufort Christmas parade for weeks.
The Beaufort Elementary first grader, who uses a wheelchair because of his cerebral palsy, could barely contain his excitement as he and his dad, Jim, waited in the meeting-spot parking lot for the other kids in his class to show up.
He was decked out in red sweatpants and a Santa shirt that Jim had searched all over town for to make the big day perfect.
The cold December minutes ticked by, though. The parking lot remained vacant.
Jim called his wife, Megan, who eventually found out the float Rhett was supposed to be riding on had been canceled because of the weather.
“I knew he was going to be so disappointed because we tried so hard to get him on a float,” she said.
But do not doubt the power of a determined mother.
Megan called the parade’s coordinator and explained Rhett’s situation.
“Give me two minutes,” the woman said.
She called back almost instantly.
“I got him on a float,” she said.
Minutes later, a smiling Rhett was sitting on the Beaufort City Council float waving his arms — dramatically, his mother adds for effect — to the crowd while rubbing shoulders with Mayor Billy Keyserling.
Everything happens for a reason, Megan thought. That reason just wasn’t clear yet.
Early arrival
Once Rhett, 7, and his older brother Nicholas, 8, were out of school for the holidays, the Stariches made their way 1,050 miles up to Waukesha, Wisconsin, to visit family for Christmas and New Years.
This isn’t something they get to do every year, but Megan was more than six months pregnant and figured they might not get to make the trip again anytime soon.
But on Christmas Day, Megan could feel something wasn’t right with her body. She was sweating and felt ill.
She opened a present before deciding to lie down and when she woke up a couple hours later, she knew.
“We have to go to the hospital,” she told Jim.
The nine-mile drive to Waukesha Memorial Hospital was scary — the son they would name Treyton wasn’t expected for another 12 weeks.
Megan and Jim arrived at the hospital at 9 p.m. Treyton was born eight hours later, weighing less than 3 pounds and not breathing.
Doctors rushed Treyton away before Megan could see or hold her baby. It was an hour before she knew he was alive.
“It was the longest hour of my life,” she said. “It was the constant wondering of did he make it, did he not make it.”
Doctors saved Treyton’s life and he began his long journey in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. The journey for the entire family would be just as long.
Nowhere else to turn
About a week later, Jim, Nicholas, and Rhett made the more than 15-hour drive home without Megan and Treyton because school was starting soon.
They hoped Treyton would be released from the hospital by his March 22 due date, but he needed to say in the NICU longer. To get closer to home, Treyton would need a medical flight from Waukesha to Savannah but the family’s insurance in South Carolina and Wisconsin were both saying the other should pay, a Wisconsin TV station reported.
“I never knew you could physically be in pain from actually missing somebody,” Megan said. “I was.”
For weeks, Megan traveled back and forth between a hospital-provided apartment and the NICU every day to be with Treyton and each day she reached out to people she thought might be able to help.
That led her back to Mayor Keyserling.
Megan told Keyserling everything that had happened. She begged him to help.
“There’s probably nothing I can do,” he told her.
“Well, you know my son,” she said, reminding him of the man and little boy in a wheelchair he met on the City Council float.
Keyserling made no promises but told Megan he would see what he could do.
“I guess he liked me,” Jim said, laughing, months later. “I thank God I was in a good mood that day.”
Keyserling reached out to state Rep. Shannon Erickson, who represents the Beaufort area. She got in touch with the S.C. Department of Health and Human Services and within three days Treyton’s transfer to Memorial Health University Medical Center in Savannah was approved.
Erickson said she believes the Stariches’ case is a relatively unusual circumstance of two states misunderstanding who was in charge, but she’s happy she could help.
“I don’t know the Starich family but that’s not important,” Erickson said. “We’re all community members. We all live in the same place. Their family issues are just as important as my family issues and the same goes for our neighbors.”
Megan was the one who got to tell Keyserling the news.
He was ecstatic.
“Even though it took a little push, Rep. Erickson and I (made) government work for someone who knew nowhere else to turn because the bureaucracy can often be slow and/or not responsive,” Keyserling said in a recent text message. “Thank goodness.”
“I felt like somebody gave me my world back,” Megan said. “It was the best moment I ever had in my entire life. It was like having my kids all over again.”
Megan’s eyes still swell with tears when she thinks about that moment.
It had been almost 100 days since the Starich family was together.
Almost 100 days until Jim would weep when he felt the warmth of his youngest son in his arms for the first time.
Almost 100 days until Rhett and Nicholas would have their mom back to let them know everything was going to be OK.
Almost 100 days until a small town community looking out for some of their own would reunite a mom and baby with their family.
Almost home
Now, instead of 1,050 miles apart, 60 miles separates them.
Things are better, but far from perfect.
Treyton still has health issues, including being diagnosed with chronic lung disease. He also will need surgery on his skull in the next few months, his mom says, because it formed too soon and could put pressure on his brain.
Megan is staying in a hotel near the hospital because the Ronald McDonald House is full.
Jim and the boys drive down on the weekends after school lets out.
They all wish they could be together more often, but say they cannot afford to make the drive every day.
And, in the midst of everything else, the Stariches are had to move homes because the homeowner they were renting from decided to sell the house. They received their 30-day notice just days after Megan and Treyton returned to the Lowcountry.
This family is no stranger to tough times.
After suffering major injuries, neither Jim nor Megan work.
Jim was injured after falling face-first off a furniture lift onto a concrete floor from fifteen feet above in 2017. The fall made national news after Megan’s wedding ring was stolen when she tried to sell it to pay the hospital bills.
Someone set up a GoFundMe page for the family, which accumulated more than $15,600.
The family also began receiving social security after Megan was in a car accident in 2001 and have had other financial support such as Veterans Affairs, they said.
‘Make it through stronger’
Even through all the bad days, the Stariches push through.
“Families make you strong,” Megan said.
And that includes the Stariches’ extended family, the communities of Beaufort and Lady’s Island.
A Styrofoam cup with Treyton’s photo on it sits at the cash register at the Tiger Express gas station off Sams Point Road on Lady’s Island for donations. Jim buys his coffee there every morning after getting Rhett and Nicholas to school, and he always spends time talking with the employees like Dianna Campbell and manager Cindy Goethie, telling them how Treyton’s doing and sharing photos of how big he’s getting.
“Jim’s like a regular part of the family here,” Goethie said. “They’re an awesome, caring family and they haven’t lived here very long but we welcomed them with open arms.”
Goethie said the store decided to put the donation cup out because it’s important for people to look out for each other.
“That’s what makes us a community,” she said. “It’s when we see someone in need and reach out and try to help.”
“We’ve got to stick together as a community,” Campbell added.
The school bus drivers who have been driving the boys for more than a year and a half and see Jim every school day pulled together and made their own donation.
When they handed Jim the money, he slipped it into his pants pocket without looking at it as he thanked them. Later, after he got his coffee and came back home, he took the money out of his pocket, sat down, and cried.
“That was a bawling moment,” he said. “These people don’t help you because they have to, they help you because they want to.”
Megan and Jim said they are so thankful to have ended up in Beaufort because of its small-town feel and southern hospitality. They know people are there to support them.
“We always seem to be skinning on by the edge our our teeth but we always make it through stronger,” Megan said. “It’s easy to be strong when you have an entire town behind you.”
This story was originally published April 30, 2019 at 12:47 PM.
