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| Wayne LeFevre's Survivor Story |
| I live
in Vermont and I am an aircraft mechanic, 36 years old, married, 3 kids
ages 12 to 7. I was feeling fine one Friday night in late October, 2003.
In the middle of the night I remember waking up just shaking. Freezing.
Saturday Morning I went to the emergency room. They thought I had the
flu or the like. My right shoulder really hurt, but the flu comes with
aches and pains, right? Went home, went to bed. Sunday morning, and this
is where it starts getting a little fuzzy for me, I went back to the ER
because my shoulder started to swell. Well, our little hospital's CT scan
was broken, so they took some cultures and gave me a bed upstairs. The
swelling was starting to creep up my neck, and they started getting worried.
They gave me a morphine pump for the pain. Sometime in the middle of the
night they moved me to ICU, and early Monday morning I was being sent
by the largest ambulance I've ever seen to Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical
Center, part of the ivy league school Dartmouth in New Hampshire.
I went straight into surgery.
The next thing I remember is waking up 12 days later. I was intubated the entire time. (Actually intubated a total of 4 times.) Two chest tubes were hooked up - pneumonia and collapsed lung, heart problems - 130 BPM and they couldn't get it down, Two large hunks missing - 1 on my right upper chest and shoulder, 1 under my armpit, and on a steady IV of Penicillin and fentanyl. Finally got out of the hospital, official diagnoses, Necrotizing Fasciitis with Toxic Shock Syndrome. Went home to a nurse coming twice a day to change the wet to dry bandages, and wife and kids still thinking I'm going to kick it any day! Well, that's my sordid story. Thanks for listening. Take care, and
remember, you can leave this life at any time, at any age. You've got
to ask yourself, how are you going to leave it? I've thought about this
a lot since I got sick. Matter of fact, it almost happened to me. It
can be frightening, unless you've lived your life like you've wanted,
not like other think you should, or to make a buck or try to impress
others.. It's really not about that. Luckily, I discovered that a couple
of years ago, and have been happy |
Wayne LeFevre wlefevre@vermontel.net Vermont USA May 2004 |
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Copyright © 1997-2003 National Necrotizing Fasciitis
Foundation (NNFF)
All Rights Reserved. May 30, 2004 |