JoAnn Withers

Dec. 2009, I retired from my job and was excited about this new chapter in life.

My dreams of sleeping in late, working on several home projects, came to a screeching halt when my house burned down on Christmas Eve due to a faulty fireplace and I lost everything. Approx three months later, my younger sister contacted me with grave news. She was diagnosed with a brain tumor and only had weeks left. A few months after my sisters funeral, my oldest daughter who was 31 at the time, announced that she was pregnant with twins. We were very excited about her finally getting pregnant and heartbroken when the twins didn’t survive.

Finally, good news, my youngest daughter was getting married and we were busy working on the wedding. I started feeling exhausted and thought that I may be coming down with the flu or maybe because of everything that happened, I may just be getting run down. A few days of bed rest and I should fine.

I remember that I wanted to take a shower and felt weak, so I decided a bath was in order. I had to really fight to get out of the tub. I got back in bed and my daughter came in to check on me before she went to her bachelorette party. She found me looking crazed and talking about working for the FBI. She contacted my other daughter who came right over and confirmed that something strange was going on and they decided I needed to be transported to the emergency room. I wouldn’t let them call an ambulance but agreed to go in the car.

The next thing I remember is being in the emergency room with a doctor standing over me and asking me who the President was. I remember a nurse looking at me with a caring smile and then I can remember being loaded into an ambulance and being transported to another hospital approximately 50 miles away.

The EMS told me that my lung was very wet. I asked for a drink because I was so hot and thirsty but was denied because of OSHA rules. I can remember that I was thinking about death and how every bump the ambulance hit seemed to really hurt.

The next thing I remember is waking up in ICU with lots of tubes, and family and hospital staff around me. I was later diagnosed with double pneumonia and sepsis. After five days in ICU I was released to go home and get ready to attend the wedding. (Sepsis and Pneumonia)

I was very weak for a long time and I would get infections rather easy but I am happy to say that all of that is behind me now. I still get teased by my family, friends and the doctors about me telling my daughters I was working for the FBI.

I feel that everyone did a wonderful job diagnosing sepsis and getting the proper care needed, but I think we still need to make some major improvements in aftercare, because when I went home, I had no idea that I was going to be weak, slow to heal, rebuilding electrolytes, etc.