Taking big steps to get home

For months, a feeding tube surgically implanted into his side provided nourishment to 21-year-old Bobby Peterson's ailing body.

Then, a little more than three weeks ago, meals were pureed and spoon fed to him.

And last week, Peterson -- struggling to regain his strength and motor skills after suffering a debilitating stroke in April -- took hungry bites of a quartered cheeseburger as his mom, Teri, held it to his mouth.

"When he said, 'Damn, this is good,' that was all I needed to hear," Teri said. "It was tear-jerking, it was beautiful."

In April, Bobby Peterson was in a medically induced coma with holes drilled in his skull and a feeding tube in his side.

He was unable to talk, swallow or move most of his body. His future was uncertain as scores of facilities refused to treat the 21-year-old stroke victim with potentially decades of therapy ahead.

But today, Bobby Peterson is talking, eating solid food and walking with the help of aides and a walker.

Monday, he is scheduled to come home.

Peterson, a former defensive lineman for Cardinal Newman High School, was two weeks past his 21st birthday when he suffered a massive hemorrhagic stroke at his mom's Sonoma apartment.

Shortly before the stroke, he had been dropped from his mother's insurance because he had graduated from the Santa Rosa Junior College culinary program and was no longer a student. Peterson had submitted an insurance application but it was still under review.

Medi-Cal, the state's insurance program for the poor, kicked in. But options for a 21-year-old stroke patient who is unable to speak, walk or feed himself were limited.

Unwilling to bring Peterson home to her second-floor, three-bedroom apartment that she shared with three of her five children, and where potential therapy was anything but guaranteed, Teri Peterson -- a single mother -- sought help.

Help came.

Parents of Bobby's high school friends established a trust fund and are planning a fund-raiser. Sen. Carole Migden's office pressed Medi-Cal officials to extend Bobby's stay at Napa's Queen of the Valley Medical Center until a rehab facility could be found. Strangers offered everything from used wheelchairs, to free room and board, to a spa treatment for Bobby's younger sisters.

Bobby was accepted by Kaiser Permanente through an emergency enrollment and now splits coverage between Kaiser and Medi-Cal.

"The outpouring from the community has just been phenomenal," said Terri Jensen, the mother of one of Bobby's closest high school buddies and organizer of an upcoming fund-raiser.

Bobby has responded, too.

Once bedridden, the former 200-pounder is now spending time on his feet with the aid of a walker and two assistants.

Having dropped nearly 40 pounds, he's now gaining weight. He's eating sandwiches, ice cream and chalupas from Taco Bell.

He's speaking -- slowly, but clearly. He's asking for food and ESPN, his mom said.

With the help of donations, the entire family just moved into a rented, five-bedroom house in Rohnert Park where Bobby will be able to move about in a wheelchair, access a downstairs bathroom and sit in the back yard.

Peterson's older brother, Danny, 25, and younger sister, Vickie, 19, have moved back home to help Teri with his care and to take care of the two youngest in the family -- Katie, 16, and Joey, 14 -- who are still in high school.

Danny hasn't worked at his heating and air conditioning specialist job since Bobby's stroke. Instead, he has spent every day at his brother's side, first in Napa and now at a Kaiser facility in Vallejo.

Danny feeds Bobby, helps him to the bathroom, steadies him as he learns how to walk again. He tries to make him laugh and he talks to him, Teri said.

"Nobody is going to help your family as well as your family," she said of her oldest son's dedication.

Danny will be Bobby's full-time caregiver when Teri returns to work as a checker at Safeway when her disability leave ends in April.

Beyond Monday's homecoming with a balloon arch, a paper sign draped across the garage and a small group of friends to mark the moment, Teri Peterson knows there will be hard times.

Bobby is still far from recovered and has asked that there be no media coverage of his return home.

There will be tension among siblings who haven't lived under the same roof for years, dealing with the recovery of a brother who just months ago was near death.

"I'm guaranteeing there will be some brawls, but this has made us all better people," Teri said. "If we are going to bicker over small things, then we really have problems."

Thrilled that Bobby is eating and asking for food, Teri can't wait to return to at least some of her prestroke routines, like making dinner for all of her kids.

"We'll have our hands full when we get home, but we'll be home," she said. "We are very, very appreciative for what Bobby has."

You can reach Staff Writer Kerry Benefield at 526-8671 or kerry.benefield@

pressdemocrat.com.