Lyndee Pellettiere-Swapp is a wife and mother who was found unconscious by her son. He called an ambulance and she was rushed to the hospital, but she would end up remaining there in a coma for twelve days.
The doctors didn’t think there was anything else they could do for her medically. They discussed pulling the plug with her family members.
She was an organ donor and her husband wanted to respect her wishes that her organs go to those who needed them, so he listened to the doctors and considered their advice.
However, when they decided to pull the plug, she was not brain dead.
She could hear everything
She heard the doctors discussing her options with her family members.
She heard the conversations between them and her husband as they explained the process of how she would die and what would happen to her organs.
She heard her family members as they came in and out of the room.
She listened to the worried conversations that they had with each other.
Each of them visited and spoke to her, knowing that she might not come back out of the coma and that the little time left in the hospital might be the last time they had to spend with her.
Her daughter read her a story and she heard every word of it.
She also heard her husband as he leaned down and whispered to her, begging her to fight. He told her she was a fighter and that was the thought she clung to.
Trapped
But she couldn’t move.
Her body wouldn’t respond no mater how much she wanted it to.
She couldn’t find a way to tell everyone who entered the room that she still wanted to live.
There were two medical couriers outside of the hospital door waiting for the plug to be pulled and organ donation to begin. Two of her organs already had recipients waiting. It was getting that close to the time for the plug to be pulled and her life to come to an end.
Her husband and a doctor were present in the room with her.
And that’s when she finally managed three words:
“I’m a fighter.”
Those words her husband had been whispering to her had been echoing in her head throughout the days and nights in the hospital. She was a fighter. She had fought her way to the surface to echo them back to him and let him know that he was right.
Recovery
Everyone called it a miracle. Well, everyone but Lyndee. She’s not ready to go quite that far, so we’ll just have to do it for her.
After she had spoken the three words in the hospital room, she slowly began to recover and return from the coma. She was able to talk with her family members again and they were so happy to have her back, especially after how close to death she had come.
Lyndee is still a strong believer in organ donation. She now also says that it’s important to have a plan for the type of situation in which she found herself, a situation in which she couldn’t speak or move but was still very much alive and present in the moment.
It’s advice worth listening to.
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