ARDS Stories ARDS Foundation

Forty-three year old Monique went to sleep on December 20, 2002, and when she awoke, it was January, 2003 and she was in another city. She was confused and terrified. She saw her sister, Patsy, who she had not seen in seven years, who lived in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Monique lives in Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, Canada.

Monique could not talk as she was still on ventilator; she listened as her sister, Patsy, tired to explain her predicament. Monique was on the vent for about two weeks and when she got off, she could hardly talk; about two inches of the tip of her tongue, was numb for four months.

Monique later learned that she had been in the ICU in Whitehorse and put on a ventilator, but they decided to medivac her to a tertiary hospital in Calgary. She was flown to Calgary on Christmas Eve. Monique's sister was at the hospital at 2:00 AM to advocate for her health.

Like many other stories, Monique also has memories of her time while in her coma. She still has vivid dreams of the dreams while in coma. When she first saw herself in a mirror, her eyes looked like a terrified deer in front of headlights. Monique was allowed out of hospital early as she had a sister in Calgary who could assist in her recovery. She would
still be near a tertiary care hospital.

Monique was so weak, she could hardly haul herself up the stairs, and she still has trouble climbing stairs. She was and still is scared to go to sleep - she slept in the same bed with Patsy for three days after her release from the hospital. Monique wonders if that fear ever disappears.

Monique does not know what her precipitating cause was for her ARDS; she does know that before ARDS, she smoked two packs of cigarettes a day, and during the night, she would wheeze, but still, in the morning, first thing that Monique would do was have a cigarette. Although she knows it is the toughest way to quit, Monique has.

Post ARDS, Monique feels as though she is living in a body after trauma - like her whole body has been punched, and as though she is bruised from the inside out she is having total body exhaustion. Monique suffers from severe pain in her fingers, most joints, hands, back and feet, she could hardly walk due to pain in heels, which was diagnosed as "plantar fisciitis" which she is still healing from. She began to see a physiotherapist for her back and she is also teaching her how to breathe with "stiff lungs."

Monique exercises her body every day; she stretches for two hours even before she has coffee, and then goes off to the gym doing a circuit using hydraulic resistance with aerobic stations between each machine. Monique cannot use weights as her hands and fingers are too stiff. Monique swims whenever she is not having digestive problems. She also developed a rash all over her body, which still comes when she is really stressed. Monique has no stamina, feels dead tired, feels weak even with working on her body for three to four hours a day. Monique also sees a dietitian to concentrate on her weight issues although she was told that the ventilator can sometimes disturb the metabolism.

Monique has lived with this chronic pain, yet manages to try to keep her sense of humor on most days. She has been unable to work since getting ARDS and as a result of what her doctors told her was "Chronic Pain Disorder" she has been on five different medications. Monique would like to connect with both other survivors who have dealt with similar ARDS situations and others ARDS survivors who are located in Canada.

Karen's story begins in April, 2000 when she was forty-two years old. Karen was the President of her children's high school PTA and was having a meeting at her home. As a nurse epidemiologist for the Army, Karen was called during the meeting by her boss to meet her in the ER because soldiers were vomiting everywhere. So begins Karen's saga.

When she arrived home that night, Karen's temperature was 102. She recalls that she was not feeling too well during the meeting, so she knew that the disease investigation had nothing to do with her illness. The soldiers had been contaminated in the dining facility.

The next morning, Karen was scheduled to fly to New Orleans, to represent her sorority, Alpha Kappa Alpha, at a regional convention. Karen flew home Easter Sunday very short of breath. She had an x-ray the next day and it showed pneumonia in the left lobe. Karen's doctor prescribed Azithromycin for ten days and though she felt a little better, Karen did not feel close to one hundred percent. After that, her doctor changed her to another and also added prednisone and with that, Karen's breathing improved. However, when this treatment was finished, Karen began to feel poorly again.

On May 17th, Karen told her husband, Rez, that she needed to go to the hospital. Her physician sent her to a pulmonologist, where Karen learned that her pulse ox was 80. She sensed need for concern when the chief and assistant chief of pulmonology came in the room after being summoned by the technician.

That was a Wednesday; the following day, Karen was set up for a lung biopsy because the blood work did not show any infectious agents. By Sunday of that week, the week before Memorial Day, Karen was on a ventilator after suffering barotraumas during the procedure, and in a drug-induced coma. She had four chest tubes, among the rest of ARDS apparatus. During insertion of the chest tube, an artery was severed and Karen ended up in the OR for an emergency thoracotomy to stop the bleeding.

Karen woke up the third week in June in time for her husband’s birthday. By this time, she was “out of the woods.” She had a multitude of prayers from her friends and church members where she was very active in the children's church ministry. Karen remained in ICU until July 6th and was transferred to a rehab hospital until the 28th of July. Karen was discharged on oxygen, and learned to walk with a walker. For six month, Karen remained on oxygen, regaining strength day by day. All in all, Karen was on the vent about 5 weeks and in the ICU 7 and 1/2 weeks and in rehab for 3 1/2 weeks.

Post ARDS, Karen is dealing mostly with the fatigue, polyneuropathy and PTSD. She had to stop working in August. She also has family members who lived through the ordeal and do not understand why she still needs talk about it. "How many people do you know that have been a survivor of a modern day miracle? God saved my life and I am grateful, but sometimes it is so sad not being who I was, which I thought was bright, witty, fun-loving-hey that is still me!"

Currently, Karen lives in Texas with her husband, Rex, and is mother to twin daughters, Veronica and Valerie, 20 and seventeen year old daughter, Nicole.

Elizabeth I. Ball, fifty-four years old, attended a wedding in on November 2, 2002. She was having acute stomach pain. While driving home the next day, Lizzy was cramping the entire time. When she got home, she began to throw up and she was doubled over in pain. Her family decided to take Lizzy to the hospital, Novato Community Hospital in Novato, California. She remembers the doctor gave her some sort of barium to drink for the cat scan. The doctors found nothing.

They decided to do exploratory surgery, and this is when Lizzy was first diagnosed with colon cancer. They later learned that the cancer had spread to her ovaries, uteri glands and into her lymph nodes. The doctors said that Lizzy was terminal. She was not expected to live through the night. But Lizzy did... However, it was during her surgery that Lizzy developed ARDS. The specifics of the ARDS are hazy for, but were typically ARDS.

She was in ICU for 2 weeks, and then she was transferred to a medical room, as they thought she had improved. But Lizzy had not. Back to the ICU. Lizzy does not know exactly how long she was in the ICU the second time, at least four weeks, but when she awoke, she was in a large room which was full of people...standing room only!

Lizzy remembers telling a nurse to send her home, that she did not want to die in the cold hospital room, that she would rather die at home. They sent Lizzy home with at home hospice.

A week later, Lizzy's daughter asked a Lutheran Preacher, and she read Lizzy her last rights. Three days later, Lizzy awoke! Another miracle. At first, Lizzy was angry to be brought back to what she saw as a world of hell, CANCER. Terminal CANCER.

She felt depressed watching her family grieve for her. Nothing she could say or do could possible make them feel. All Lizzy could do is say "I love you" and wipe their tear stained face, give hugs and hold them until everyone stopped crying.

Hospice stayed with Lizzy for a month; they saw she was getting better and released her. Lizzy was their miracle child. After Lizzy got enough strength back, she went to Kaiser to see her oncologist. She had a new treatment she wanted to try on Lizzy. What did she have to lose?

After going through ten months of chemotherapy, Lizzy had another cat scan and she was told that the cancer had totally disappeared. What a day that was. Everyone cried and held each. Lizzy was relieved. She decided to take a vacation and spend time with her family. She spent time in Idaho.

Lizzy was sick for around 2 weeks and went to the hospital there, and they found a nodule on my lung. When Lizzy returned from my vacation, she went and saw her oncologist, who gave her a pet scan and cat scan. The cancer had moved to her lungs. Lizzy had to wait for three months before they could do any surgery or more chemotherapy.

So, three months from now, Lizzy will be back in chemo and go through more hell. But since she is in the business of miracles, she is not ready to give up. Lizzy says that she is, "high on life and enjoying the time I have to spend with my family and friends." Lizzy says that this is most of her story ... stay tuned!

Jolene Troia's father, Mel Johnson who lives in southern Wisconsin, is a large man, 6’5, 300 pounds, with a great big heart. Good thing it is a very strong heart as well!

On July 31, 2003, Mel had bypass surgery to correct 5 blockages in his heart. He appeared to be recovering fine, walking in just a few days. Other than having atrial fibrillation, he was doing fine. He was started on a drug called amiodarone for the arrhythmia.

Then he began having difficulty breathing. The nurses and even some of the doctors tried to tell us he was just feeling “anxious” and that it was all in his head. Soon after, they made him get up to walk and his blood pressure dropped very low. He was back in ICU and they thought he had a blood clot in his lung. This was not the case. In a few days, he was back on the regular surgical floor, but again was having difficulty breathing.

Again his family was given the run around and ignored by doctors and nurses. A week went by and Mel just kept getting worse. Finally, they discovered he had over one liter of fluid that had collected around his heart! He was raced back into surgery that day. No one dreamt what was in store for him.

After the surgery, our family was told he was recovering well. But, a few days later, he was still in a drug induced coma and on the ventilator. He began to look puffy and swollen. His condition continued for days and the family was told that he had pneumonia.

Mel continued to swell up and gradually his kidneys could not get rid of all the excess fluid on board his body. The physicians decided to try “prisma” which is similar to dialysis and would help Mel's kidneys to get rid of the fluid. It worked briefly. His breathing continued to get worse and he was so swollen they could hardly get any of the IVs into his veins. At one point, Mel's body weight was up 50 pounds in fluids. His eyelids were puffy; his hands felt like water balloons.

Mel's family decided his body had been through enough and put a DNR order although his heart was the one organ that appeared to never fail him. His lungs and kidneys were were not doing well. Finally, the pulmonologist told the family that he thought Mel had a condition called ARDS. He explained that the drug, Amiodarone, had poorly interacted with the anesthesia used during the 2nd surgery to remove the fluid off his heart. Mel had what was known as “Amiodarone Induced ARDS.”

Mel's family learned that he had a 10-30% chance to live based on the condition of his lungs and kidneys. Jolene remembers praying to God that “if he was going to die anyway, to please let him just die today so he doesn’t have to suffer.” But God had other plans! Luckily, the pulmonologist recognized his condition and began pumping high doses of steroids. At this point, Mel required full fledged dialysis and slowly, over days and days, his condition began to improve.

After weeks, he improved enough so that they could slowly begin waking him up. When Mel did not wake, this frightened the family. When he finally did, his movements were agitated and his hands were fisted and they began to question whether he had incurred brain damage. Jolene remembers driving to the hospital early one morning determined to meet with a neurologist and hearing the song “Calling All Angels” by Train on the radio. She was inspired and felt that somehow her father would pull through.

Jolene thought, “I need a sign, to let me know you're here” and she got her sign when she arrived at the hospital that day. Mel's hands were skinny and he was moving them quite normally! He was pulling himself up with the bedrails. His hands trembled but he was moving them. And he was nodding yes and no to questions and overall, her father looked much better. “I won't give up if you won't give up” she told him and she told him about the song she had heard.

The months following were difficult but changed her life forever. Mel spent over 8 weeks in that drug induced coma. He was on the ventilator for over 12 weeks. The first time Mel spoke, he could hardly stop!

Mel did not get released from the hospital until late Fall and then he went straight to Rehab. After a few days, an infection in his sternum sent him back for more surgery. After that, Mel returned to Rehab and finally he was allowed to come home for the first time shortly before Christmas. Therapies continued in his home for weeks. In the Spring of 2004, Mel had his gallbladder removed and even almost one year later, Mel still has a bedsore on his heel from lying in that awful coma. Although his endurance and strength are low, Mel is a survivor and he has one hell of a strong heart!

Thirty-five year old Rilee Higley is an ARDS survivor. On February 18, 2004, her Mom went in to check on her at about 11:00 AM and by night fall, Rilee was in the ICU at Grays Harbor Community Hospital in Washington. Rilee had a fever, shortness of breath, difficulty breathing and her oxygen levels were low.

On February 19, 2004, Rilee's friend, James, and her mom spent the night in the ICU. Rilee did not seem to be getting any better. This continued for days until the doctor finally came to the conclusion that Rilee had acute respiratory distress syndrome. Her physicians said that Rilee would need to be airlifted to Harborview in Seattle.

The family headed for Seattle. They all met in the emergency room and were taken up to see Rilee on the 9th floor. At that time, they realized just how ill Rilee was as they were told she only had a 65% chance of survival. She was on 100% oxygen.

On February 21, 2004, Rilee was still about the same, still on 100% oxygen. Family members spoke to a hospital representative who wanted to include Rilee in a study, but after discussing the options and talking to her physician, they declined involvement in the study.

On February 22, 2004, there was still little change with Rilee and she was sedated all the time. The next day, still there was no change. But on February 24, 2004, at 9:45 AM, Rilee's team of doctors were, for the first time, full of wonderful news; they said that her breathing tube would probably come out in 24 to 72 hours with a couple of days to get stabilize and then she would need about a week of therapy before she went home.

Incredible news. Rilee had been able to breathe on her own for 5 minutes. The next day, she was able to breathe on her own for thirty minutes. They reduced her settings and she was breathing easier though she was still sedated.

On February 26, 2004, the doctors said that Rilee was making great progress and at about noon, they removed the tube in her throat. As the day progressed, she was getting more alert, confused and angry. She wanted to go home.

The following day she got a little closer to that goal. Rilee was moved out of the ICU. On February 28, 2004, Rilee was a bit off the wall, but as the day continued, she settled down. The next day, she was still a little agitated, and her doctors decided that she had been on too much medication that was stopped abruptly and now she would be gradually withdrawn. Finally, after two weeks in the hospital, Rilee was discharged. They made it home at 9:15 P.M. A long day, but good to be home.

Besides suffering from some memory loss, Rilee is doing well. She lives in Aberdeen, Washington.

ARDS Survivor: Sara Siak

Photo of Sarah Twenty-three year old Sarah Siak had a rough pregnancy from the start. Sarah had a condition in her blood that had her doing routine tests for months during her pregnancy. At about 6 months, Sarah ballooned from 140 pounds to 180. Her feet, hands, and entire body were retaining immense amounts of fluid.

Sarah's blood pressure was also high from the middle of her pregnancy on. Those three symptoms are characteristics of preeclampsia, but Sarah was not officially diagnosed with preeclampsia until January 4, 2004. That was when she was thirty-three weeks pregnant.

On January 4th, when Sarah went to visit her OBGyn, she was feeling under the weather, and had taken some Tylenol cold as a last resort. She was extremely swollen and now weighed 208 pound, mostly fluid. Sarah's blood pressure was 210/120 and she was instructed to go immediately to the hospital. Sarah had told her doctor's nurse that she did not feel well but neglected to say just how badly she felt.

At the hospital, Sarah was diagnosed with bronchitis. She was put in a room and monitored for two days. She had a chest x-ray done each day because she had begun to cough. She was administered breathing treatments on a nebulizer a few times, and because she has mild exercise induced asthma, Sarah thought that it was just flaring up. Two days later, on Wednesday afternoon Sarah's bronchitis had developed into pneumonia in her right lung, and her blood pressure remained very high. She had also begun to retain most of her fluids, and was gaining more fluid weight.

Sarah's doctor they could not wait, and decided to delivery her baby via emergency C-section. Noah Matthew Siak was born at 2:00 am, Thursday, weighing 4 pounds, 9 ounces. During the delivery, Sarah had to ask the doctors to stop several times because she needed to cough. Noah was taken to the NICU and Sarah began to get much worse. With preeclampsia, the only cure is to deliver the baby. The next day, Sarah's blood pressure was still high, and she could not pass any fluids. Her lungs were beginning to fill with fluid and she also was told she had fluid around her heart. Friday and Saturday, Sarah was given many breathing treatments and was put on a permanent oxygen mask. Sarah was very agitated and when Sarah's mother asked the nurse why she was so hot and irritated, the nurse responded, "She is drowning in her own fluid but does not realize what is happening."

Sunday, Sarah's family refers to as "Bad Sunday," was the day that she was diagnosed with ARDS; Sarah was put on the ventilator at 100% oxygen for three days. Each day, Sarah did not get worse, which gave her family hope. The doctors gave Sarah a 50/50 chance on Bad Sunday.

Wednesday was when Sarah's miracle happened. Her x-ray on Tuesday had shown no improvement. Wednesday morning, at the first thirty minute ICU visitation, Sarah's mother spoke to her daughter about Noah, Sarah's son, and she started breathing over the ventilator. All the machines started going off and Sarah's father ran to get the doctor. He immediately pushed Sarah's oxygen from 100% to 25%, and by the end of the day, Sarah was breathing on her own, with no assistance from the ventilator. All of her doctors said that it was a miracle that her lungs completely cleared in 24 hours. Sarah honestly believes it was all because of the power of prayer. While she was in ICU, the waiting room was constantly full with church members, friends, and family praying for Sarah and Noah to get better.

Less than a week after being put on the ventilator, Sarah was taken off, slowly regaining her strength and enjoying her slightly delayed start at motherhood.

Noah did fantastic in the hospital. His lungs were perfectly formed and he was ready to go home before Sarah was! Sarah's husband, Matt, was the real trooper through it all, running from the NICU to the ICU, caring for his wife and his child.

Sarah wants to share her story with others, to connect with others who have experienced ARDS, and to give others hope. Sarah resides with Matt and Noah in Marion, North Carolina.

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ARDS Survivor: Shirley Simmons

September 15, 1999, Shirley Simmons was fifty-four years old. She was in excellent heath and lived in Cleveland, Ohio. Shirley was Vice President of Leisure Travel for a local Travel Agency. She felt fine when she went to work that day, and conducted a staff meeting, but midmorning, she began to feel ill. Shirley went outside to get some fresh air, but felt worse. She began to vomit profusely with severe abdominal pain. She was told she was "as white as a sheet of paper." A colleague called 9-11.

The paramedics took Shirley to University Hospital and she was admitted quickly and diagnosed with severe acute pancreatitis. It took nearly two weeks to stabilize Shirley and on October 1, 1999, Shirley was discharged.

She went to Michigan, to recuperate at her sister’s home. After about a week, the pain became more severe and her sister, Mary Margaret, took her to a G.I. specialist who found a pseudocyst. Shirley waited to get a CT scan in Cleveland the following week.

On October 17, Shirley learned that she had a giant pancreatic pseudocyst; she was admitted the next morning for an operation immediately to drain the cyst. On October 20, Shirley had surgery; and was discharged on November 4, 1999. She went to Southern Ohio to recuperate with her parents, Gene & Eileen Dosson.

However, recuperating was easier said than done. It was impossible to keep anything down and Shirley vomited several times a day. By November 14, 1999, she was in the local ER where they took some x-rays and gave her an IV of potassium.

Shirley’s Mother, Eileen, was told to take her back to U.H. in Cleveland immediately. During this ride, Shirley was in pain and vomiting. When she arrived, she received two units of blood. After that, Shirley has no memory until she came out of her coma in early February, 2000.

What she learned was that she had developed a pancreatic infection and sepsis. On November 17, they performed exploratory surgery to flush out the infection and drain an abscess. While in recovery, Shirley developed significant Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS). She was immediately put on a ventilator, paralytics, and in a drug induced coma. At this point, Shirley was on 100% oxygen and being feed through a nasal gastric tube. Shirley had seizures and other complications.

Shirley’s family took turns staying in Cleveland, to be with her. Her sister and brother-in-law, Mary Margaret & Dick, spent both Thanksgiving Day and New Year's Eve at the hospital together with her.

On December 6, Shirley experienced renal failure; her infection continued to get worse and on December 22, yet another surgery was performed to try to flush out the infection. It was touch and go for the next three weeks, almost hour by hour. Shirley’s family was told she only had a 40% chance of survival.

By mid January, Shirley began to hold her own. A feed tube was inserted through her stomach. In early February, she was brought out of the coma, over several days. Although she developed a blood clot in her left leg, after a filter was inserted, physical therapy was started; also in February, Shirley was weaned off the ventilator and put on a trach collar, though she was still oxygen dependent.

On March 4, Shirley was moved to a medical floor, though she had now developed a pancreatic fistula. On March 10, Shirley went into Respiratory Distress again. Back she went to the ICU and on a ventilator. After a few days, she was again weaned and back to the trach collar. She had also developed a sciatic neuropathy in her left leg and foot, which left her with a severe drop foot.

On April 4, Shirley was transferred to Heather Hill Rehabilitation Hospital where she received intense physical and occupational therapy. In the third week of April, she was taken off oxygen and the trach was removed. Shirley remained in rehab for several more weeks and before being discharged, she was fitted with a brace for the drop foot.

In May 19, Shirley's trach hole was still open and the pancreatic fistula prevented the surgical incision from closing. She was able to walk with a walker, but she could not go up and down stairs on her own. Visiting nurses came twice a day to give injections in the abdomen and to change the bandage on her incision. She had physical and occupational therapy at home three times a week. After six weeks of this treatment the pancreatic fistula was nearly dried up and Shirley was able to continue physical therapy at the local hospital.

However, Shirley’s trach fistula was still open so she was referred to an Otolaryngologist (neck and head surgeon) for closure of the trach. He gave Shirley an option other than surgery and after three applications of trichloroacetic acid, the hole was closed and Shirley lost her sexy voice. Shirley continued P.T. for the next 10 months.

In February, 2001, Shirley was diagnosed with osteomalagia, a condition where your body is not absorbing calcium due to a severe vitamin D deficiency, which was treated. In July 2001, Shirley was finally able to go back to work two days a week. Her foot and leg continued to improve and in the winter of 2001/2002, she was able to stop wearing the brace. She estimates the nerves have regenerated 85 –90%.

In August, 2003, Shirley was able to take a vacation to Russia by herself. Shirley declares: “This was a wonderful personal victory to be able to take such a trip alone. I am now living on my own, working and totally independent. I am able to enjoy life to the fullest. Thanks to my family and friends who were always there to support and encourage me, I was able to stay positive and focus on getting my life back.

Shirley is doing wonderful; the only permanet damage is nerve damage in my left leg and foot. This is very minor. Shirley still has very minor tingling, but walks just fine. She wants people to know that patients do fully recover and go back to full productive lifve.

I am so very fortunate and truly blessed to have a full productive live. I celebrate life everyday.”

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ARDS Survivor: Frank

Photo of Frank Frank and Robin moved to Plains, Pennsylvania in 1995 and found one another in 2000.
After a triple bypass and several strokes in November 2003 Frank was making an amazing recovery; on Christmas Day, Frank was able to get a pass to come home from the hospital to spend the day with Robin and the rest of their family. With two and a half grueling weeks of relearning how to walk and talk, recovering from his surgeries, it was to be a joyous holiday for the entire family.

However, what began as a wonderful day quickly turned into a terrible nightmare. Frank's pass home was shortened because he had become short of breath. That same day, there was also a bad snowstorm. Once back at the hospital, Frank was quickly put back on 02 and was watched closely watched.

At 6 AM, Frank called Robin to tell her that he was scared because breathing was becoming more difficult. The nurses told Robin to get to the hospital; they were not sure what was going on. As she got off the hospital floor, Robin heard a code blue being called and she knew it was for Frank. He had stopped breathing. Robin did not know what was happening.

Frank was rushed to ICU after they got him breathing. After a long wait, Robin was told that Frank was in heart failure; when she finally saw him, he was back on the ventilator but holding his own. By that night, Frank got off the vent and was on a Bi-PAP.

At 6 am the next morning, Robin received a call from the hospital saying Frank had stopped breathing again. They did not think he would pull through twice. The doctor met Robin and they said that they did not know what was wrong, only that Frank now had pneumonia. Frank needed a bronchoscopy and chest tubes. Just before New Year's, Robin first heard the word: ARDS

Robin was sent home with a Pamphlet and told to call him with any questions after she read it; he felt it would be easier that way. But Robin went out to the waiting room, read for about five minutes and went back in... "I don't like this" she told the doctor. She tried to reason with the doctor, that he was wrong and that Frank had something else.

This was when the real roller coaster began. This was Frank's second time in ICU and so Robin knew the staff well; they were always honest with her. There were a few times that Robin was told that there was no way that Frank was going to survive. His body kept shutting down, his lungs, heart, liver, kidneys, and bowels. The blood pressure medications were being used at the highest level to try to keep his blood pressure up.

After a week, when I knew he was not getting any better and a trach was put in. After 6 weeks, Frank started to get better as quick as he got sick. Robin was searching for a rehab hospital, when he suddenly got better to the point that he got off the vent on his own.

After 7 weeks in ICU, and three months in the hospital, Frank went home. He only weighed 113 lb., down from his original 157 pounds.

Frank received at home nurses, and PT and OT came to the house to care for him. After about a month, Frank ended up back in the hospital for heart failure. Then the day before Easter, he was hospitalized for a ruptured gallbladder which resulted from the major weight loss and stress on his body.

Six months before Frank even had all of these problems, Frank had a total hip replacement, followed by a hernia operation. In less the one year, Frank was in the operating room a total of 12 times. Frank is truly an amazing person, a miracle is what most people call him.

Between Robin and Frank, they have eight children; Frank has a son, Keith and daughter, Chelsea; Robin has five daughters, Jennifer, Candice, Hope, Amanda, Bobbi-Jo and together, Frank and Robin have a daughter, Danika. The ages range from 28 years, to three. Robin has three grandchildren as well, Alexandria, Janelle and Patrick and they call him Pop Pop Frank. Frank and Robin also are lucky to extended family who served as wonderful support to both Robin, Frank and their family in their time of need.

Before ARDS, Frank had done many things throughout his life, from photography to writing Country Songs, and most recently, refinishing and maintaining floors for Stores. He was also the best cook around. After ARDS, Frank has retired. He is trying his hand at cooking again, he loves to go camping, and is trying to relearn how to do some of the things he forgot how to do, due to the strokes he suffered while hospitalized. The best thing, as Frank says, is that he is getting to watch our littlest one grow up, and he is having a grand time spending his days with her.

Above all, because of all of the wonderful support and encouragement from those in the ARDS Community and from family, friends and Frank's doctors, Frank is a survivor!

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If you would like add your story, please fill out our Contact Form. The stories will be edited for length so that we can include as many as possible.

The ARDS Foundation
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