The terror began the morning of May 22, 2021, when the respiratory therapist inserted the ventilator tube down my throat. It was like swallowing a vacuum cleaner hose. Paralytic drugs were injected to keep me from instinctively yanking it out.
Democracy Dies in Darkness
Sepsis nearly killed me. This is what it was like.
Pain, fever, an emergency flight to a trauma unit. Recovering from near-death has meant taking care of my mental health, too.
By Jackie Duda
September 16, 2023 at 9:00 a.m. EDT