Every green light mattered: Kelly's journey back home
Four days after what was supposed to be a routine knee procedure, 34-year-old Kelly M. knew something was wrong. She felt nauseated, weak and short of breath. Her family thought it might be a reaction to medication or dehydration, but by that afternoon, Kelly’s symptoms were getting worse. Even her cat, Gracie, seemed to sense that something was off.
Gracie began acting strangely, drawing the attention of Kelly’s family in a way she never had before. Soon after, Kelly’s parents, Marilyn and Ken, helped Kelly into the car and drove her to HCA HealthONE Aurora. From their home near Buckley Space Force Base, the drive could have taken 15 minutes or more. On that day, Kelly remembers; they (mercifully) hit almost every green light.
“I kept telling my mom and dad, ‘It’s getting worse,’” Kelly said.
A critical turn in the emergency room
When Kelly arrived at the emergency room, her condition changed quickly. She was pale, critically ill, and barely able to maintain her blood pressure. Within minutes, the care team moved her back for emergency treatment. Kelly experienced cardiac arrest, meaning her heart suddenly stopped pumping effectively. The team performed CPR and worked quickly to identify the cause: a severe bilateral pulmonary embolism, or blood clots blocking blood flow to both lungs.
Kelly went into cardiac arrest again during a CT scan. Her parents, waiting nearby, heard “code blue” overhead but did not yet know it was their daughter. Soon, a chaplain came to sit with them and pray.
“They told us she was in very, very critical condition,” Marilyn said. “They told us she probably wouldn’t make it through the night.”
Lifesaving support when seconds count
But Kelly was in the right place for a highly specialized response. Her care team placed her on extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, better known as ECMO. ECMO is an advanced form of life support that temporarily takes over some of the work of the heart and lungs by pumping blood outside the body, adding oxygen and removing carbon dioxide before returning it to the patient.
Because Kelly was in cardiac arrest, her team also used ECPR, or extracorporeal cardiopulmonary resuscitation. ECPR means ECMO is started during CPR in an effort to support blood flow and oxygen delivery when conventional resuscitation alone may not be enough. For Kelly, it was lifesaving.
She was placed in a medically induced coma for about a week while ECMO, a ventilator, and other emergency therapies gave her body time to recover. Her parents stayed close, playing her favorite music, including Pink, Nelly, NSYNC and Backstreet Boys. They remember nurses coming in while the music played, helping bring moments of warmth into an otherwise terrifying intensive care unit (ICU) stay.
Waking up to a miracle
When Kelly woke up, one of the first things she remembers was the breathing tube being removed and holding onto her mother’s finger. Her recovery continued step by step. After leaving the ICU, Kelly transferred to rehabilitation, where she had to rebuild her strength and relearn how to walk safely.
She worked on balance, memory, getting in and out of a car and walking short distances with a walker. Nine days later, she was able to go home.
“I felt like Dorothy from ‘The Wizard of Oz,’” Kelly said. “I kept telling everybody, ‘I want to go home.’”
Home, healing and Gracie
Going home also meant being reunited with Gracie, the cat who had seemed to know something was wrong before anyone fully understood how serious Kelly’s condition had become. While Kelly was hospitalized, video calls with Gracie helped her keep going. Once Kelly returned home, Gracie stayed by her side.
Four years later, Kelly is doing well. She works as a barista ata coffee shop and stays on top of her medical appointments and medications. She still sees Dr. Chakradhar Kotaru in a pulmonary clinic. Dr. Kotaru was one of her doctors and is the medical director of the HCA HealthONE Aurora ECMO program.
Kelly’s recovery has not been without challenges. She still experiences fatigue and some lingering effects from what her body endured. But she is alive, working and grateful.
“Don’t give up”
“If it wasn’t for them, I wouldn’t be here,” Kelly said. “We were so blessed that we ended up at HCA HealthONE Aurora. Everybody was so wonderful.”
For families facing a critical illness, Kelly’s message is simple: “Don’t give up. Stay strong. Just keep trying.”