Jennifer Buckley

Thanksgiving 2016, I wasn’t feeling well. I was having stomach pains and could not stop vomiting. I went to the emergency room and was admitted because they could not figure out what was wrong. I had an endoscopy done to see what was wrong. During the procedure, I aspirated. I ended up getting pneumonia due to the aspiration. I was moved into the ICU unit. My health started to decline rapidly. I had a tracheotomy and also needed to be intubated.

I went into respiratory and kidney failure. I was in a coma for about 7 days. I was also placed on dialysis. I remained in the ICU unit until the end of December and was moved to a medical rehab. I was still on the ventilator and received dialysis 3 times a week. I was weaned off the vent and began my rehab work. I had to learn all self-help skills all over again. I remember the edge of the bed and cried. I was 52 years old. My life shouldn’t have been like that. After 2 weeks in rehab, my kidneys regained full function and I was able to go off of dialysis.

I remained in this rehab for a month to continue to gain strength, then moved to a lower level rehab for 2 weeks. There I continued to gain strength so I could return home. February 14, 2017, I was able to return home and continue outpatient physical therapy. 3 months later I was able to return to work. I could not have gotten through this without the help of my wonderful husband and son.