Last year (10/2006) at the age of 47, I had a heart attack from ecoli blood poisoning I contracted while a FEMA disaster response worker in Louisiana during Hurricanes Katrina & Rita, plus pneumonia I picked up in the hospital ER. I "coded", was revivied, spent 5 days on Life Support, & then 3 weeks on 14 IVs, 9 drips & oxygen. My husband, meanwhile, was told to plan a Jewish funeral, becaue I was dying. I survived, and was sent by ambulance, on oxygen, to Duke U Heart Center as a transplant candidate, only to find I had made a rather amazing 100% recovery. 3 days later I was nhome, and amonth later I was swing dancing agian. I can Only attribute this to:

a) The love and knowledge of my husband, who refused to let the hospital medivac me, knowing from 21 yrs. doing medivacs in the US Army, that with blood pressure of 40 I would survive it, and

 b) Dr. Chu Nguyen, the heart transplant surgeon from Duke U, recently arrived in Bluefield, WV, who then stepped in and saved my life, and

c) the love of friends, of ALL religions, who had me in every "prayer circle" from Israel to Puerto Rico to NYC to Alaska.

I made a full 100% recovery, and (after learning again to breathe and walk...) was swing dancing & playing golf w/my husband by mid-Dec 2006. LIFE IS GOOD! I AM LUCKY! (Proof that I have darn good genes from my 85-yr old smoking, drinking, golf-playing mom, and that smoking and drinking all these years has apparently been good for me, too). When I was in CCU. still intubated on Life Support, swollen purple and green, with my hair matted to my head, on all the drips, IVs and oxygen,  my husband, whom I love more than ANYTHING/ANYONE, gave me a bag of THONGS! He even found a sushi bar for me at Duke U hospital! Am I blessed, or what?!

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