A PROSEPRINE MAN who nearly died has gone back to say thanks to the nurses who helped save him.
18-year-old Jordan awoke in the early hours with severe pain between his shoulder blades and his mum immediately felt something was seriously wrong.
“We took Jordan to Proserpine hospital, and there he was slowly losing feeling in his right side,” mum Sally said.
“Proserpine transferred us through to Mackay by ambulance and by the time we got there his whole right side was paralysed.
“By that afternoon he had no feeling from his throat down; he was completely paralysed.
“He lost use of all the muscles in his chest, so he couldn’t cough up secretions, so basically he was choking and had to be intubated and put in a medically induced coma.”
It was a scary and overwhelming time for Sally and her family, and she was still days away from finding out what was wrong.
“Doctors were still diagnosing…. after seven to 10 days, they said it was acute transverse myelitis.
“They did tell me that because he was so very, very sick, I should expect that he’s not going to make it. It’s not something I would wish for anybody to go through.”
Jordan remained in a coma for another 10 days and went on to spend more than a month in ICU, another two and a half weeks in the Medical F2 ward, and then another month undergoing rehab.
While he still has a long road ahead to regain muscle and dexterity, the future is bright and, as Sally explains ‘we just take it one day at a time and every day is a blessing’.
But there was an important task to take care of when they visited Mackay recently for a regular rehab appointment.
“We wanted to say thank you. The people in ICU and Medical (F2) ward, and the wardies, Hannah (Hillman) and Jino (Porinchu) in rehab; it’s like his second family and he wanted to thank each and every one involved in his recovery,” Sally said. “It felt like home; they were so supportive to me as well. ‘Thanks’ can never be enough – they truly are amazing people. Without them, I wouldn’t have my son.”
