Kora Young

Survivor

As a 15-year-old athlete and high school student, you often do not picture fighting for your life. The weeks prior to getting sick, I was training for the area track meet, picking out a prom dress, and keeping my nose in books to keep my good grades. However, at my area track meet, I caught something that nearly killed me.

In late April 2017, I got a fever that I couldn’t shake for the next two weeks. I was in the doctor’s office 4 or 5 times in those two weeks (I’m not sure specifically how many times because much of this part of my life is blacked out). On the first visit, I was told it was just a cold and to go home. On the second visit, I was given broad antibiotics that “should knock it out”. My third visit consisted of a diagnosis of walking pneumonia and more antibiotics, but this time through an IV. By this point, I had lost 15 pounds and had circles so dark around my eyes I looked like a ghost. I couldn’t walk from the lobby of the doctor’s office to the exam room without having to stop to catch my breath a few times. I was sent back home and told to come back by the end of the week if I still wasn’t better.

Well, I wasn’t better and by May 8th I was in septic shock in the lobby of my doctor’s office with a sitting heart rate of 205 and a fever of 105 and was finally admitted to the hospital without a true diagnosis. (Sepsis and Septic Shock)

After countless x-rays and fainting spells trying to use the restroom, I spit into a cup to hopefully find out what was making me so sick. Mycoplasma pneumonia was responsible for sending me into septic shock and ruining the rest of my freshman year of high school. (Sepsis and Pneumonia) My primary doctor went out of town the day I was admitted because her daughter was graduating from college so I was shuffled between maybe getting airlifted to a large hospital or staying in my rural hospital with no pediatric doctor. They believed I had an empyema so chest tubes were up in the air with all of this as well.

I finally got the correct antibiotics and let them run their course for the next several days. I remember finally being able to shower because they could take my heart monitor off and playing card games with the night nurses. Of course, I didn’t know how sick I truly was, but my mom is a nurse and knew I was either going to die a painful death if I wasn’t treated properly or I would live, but have deficits from the sepsis. She spent every minute by my side but during those first few days, she didn’t know if I would live or not. I took this time to catch up on school work, watch everyone go to prom, and watched my regional spot get taken from me in track because I was too sick to compete.

I had no idea that I was fighting for my life until my pastor and youth pastor came to my hospital room while I slept and prayed over me with tears in their eyes. The next morning I thanked God for waking me that morning and prayed that I lived through the day and, if I didn’t, watch over my mom and dad. However, that day my fever dropped, I got to take a shower (assisted) and got to walk down to the ER vending machine to get my favorite chips. My nurses watched Friends with me when they had time and watched me as I walked around the floor to exercise my lungs.

On Mother’s Day 2017, I was discharged and went home to recover. The next few weeks felt worse than when I was hospitalized. Learning to breathe again while walking and learn to take showers on my own without passing out was the most difficult part. I visited my high school after I was discharged to see a few of my friends and turn in my track equipment. My classmates gasped when I walked in. I was surprised by that reaction, but I didn’t realize the last time they saw me I was healthy. All they saw was literal skin and bones and a ghost white figure roaming the halls. I lost a total of 30 pounds (which I couldn’t afford to lose) and lost so much pigment in my skin. However, in the next several months I recovered.

I was cleared to be a cheerleader the following fall and run again in the winter and spring. I could never catch my breath well enough during runs, I never beat my PR, and never made it to state like I thought I would before I got sick. But in my junior year, I was offered an athletic scholarship to a D2 university where I won two national championships and furthered my education. I am now 21 years old and running two companies, I’m a homeowner, and I have lived more than I ever thought I would. Sepsis nearly took my life from me six years ago, but I fought and became someone I never thought I would become.

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