Life Support is an issue that not many people encounter.  For all those entering and

reading my site, I hope this can help you understand that issue.  I have been on Life

Support a year ago.  I had bi-lateral Strep Pneumonia.  I was not expected to live.

I also had ARDS;  ACUTE RESPIRATORY DISTRESS SYNDROME.  I now can

look back over the past year and reflect on this traumatic but learning journey.  If you

have a loved one that is now on LifeSupport or you have been there, you will understand.....

Many times in our lives, we take things for granted.  Simple things......air, water, smell, taste

many things that we would never even notice.  We feel perhaps that over the course of a day

we go about our life never knowing that we could suddenly fall ill.  Desperately ill.  It happens.

I will tell you about my Foundation called EVERY EXIT, the goals, the vision that I have.

It is a Foundation to help those people in need realize that there is hope, NEVER TO GIVE UP.

I know from my experience that I am a different person.  I have changed.  I may not know just

exactly how; I do know for the better.  It makes you appreciate life so much more.  It allows

you to enter a world where you can share your fears, sorrows and experience.........

 

I woke up at 5am on July26th, 2002.  My chest hurt very badly.  I could not breathe.  I was scared but too ill

to do anything but go back to sleep......that would change.  I was on a ventilator for 11 days.  I had ARDS.  There

is an ARDS Foundation.....ArdsUsa.org, which I have come to know very well.  They are my family, my friends,

and at times my sanity.  I found out about ARDS after getting off the vent on Aug12, 2002.  My Pulmonologist

explained the condition to me.  It makes your lungs hard, damages them, you have to be vetilated to survive.  Most

patients that have ARDS are completely caught unaware of the danger they are in.  They do, however, remember

many things, as I have.  I can tell you dreams about an Indian Princesses bargaining for the life of a loved one.  I saw

my Dad in a warm, wonderful place....without my Mom.  I thought to myself.."Why is he standing there without 

Mom".  I would soon find that answer out.  Many difficult days and nights.  Many hopes vanished......I am here

After being on a ventilator, having your body assaulted with tubes, having your family told day after day that they

need to start thinking about "turning off the vent"; you wake up.  It is not the same world you knew.  It cannot be. 

You have changed. Life is different.  You do not understand what has happened to you.  I am going to help you

learn how to do that with EVERY EXIT.