Debbie Hoagland:  

Life In one split second of time, I found myself a mother of a diabetic. John was a 17-year-old picture of health. The last time I saw him he was at work & he was fine. The next time I saw him was when I walked into the ICU where he was in a coma & on life support. Thinking he had the flu, he treated it as such & in two days he was in the ER with a 2,100 sugar count & went into a coma & respiratory failure. To be put on life support, when given anesthesia, he went into malignant hyperthermia. He was started on a dopamine IV drip, packed in ice & careflighted to Harris Hospital. Upon his entry into the ER, he was met by Dr. David Wilson. A new problem arose when he suffered two heart arrests. He had to be paddled to start up his heart again. Unfortunately, when his heart stopped, the dopamine drip infiltrated the tissue of his arm. The next day, he was taken for his first surgery in an attempt to save his arm. Four days later he went back into respiratory failure, his liver failed & he went into a second coma, hepatic coma. This was due to a very high ammonia level in his blood. Three days later the doctor was calling in a brain specialist. Things were not looking very good at this point. He had to have an infectious disease doctor because his white count went to 50,000. He had gotten a staph infection in his arm, an infection in his blood from the central line & an infection in his urine. These were further complications on top of all the rest. He also had to have a blood specialist when his blood lost the ability to coagulate. He was pumped with many transfusions & plasma to combat this problem. Miraculously, he found his way back from his coma but had to have a second surgery to amputate his left arm & a third to close it. He spent 26 days in ICU & five weeks in the hospital. It was the BEST CHRISTMAS I ever had with a miracle gift from God. He asked his doctor if he could get out of the...Expand for more