I contracted the 2009 strand of the H1N1 flu, almost died and lived to tell about. AMA

How much did all of your medical bills and up being? I am still in debt for staying in icu for two nights, couldn't imagine being in there for a month and a half!

At first, the insurance wouldnt pay for the Ecmo or the helicopter. My mom called the governers office, in NJ, and the lady who ran the medical department got it all taken care of. I didnt have to pay anything.

So would you tell anyone hesitant to get a flu shot
to get one?

Oh yeah, get your flu shot.

Anyone who tries to talk you out of it, is misinformed or fearmongering.

I caught the flu two years ago. The doctor at the clinic that diagnosed it fucking told my girlfriend not to get the flu shot ever, cause they never get one and haven't caught the flu yet!

Sadly, not all doctors are rational human beings.

People tend to hang on to an article that confirms their view, instead of the overwhelming evidence to the contrary

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It's sad that you had to go through all of this, hope you recover soon. I wanted to ask that when you were so close to death, did you think about it? Did the prospect of never waking up again scare you or were you able to accept it? Death has always been a weird thing with me, i was wondering if others thought along the same lines....

I was okay with it. I am not afraid to die, so when I was put into an induced coma, and even I did die, I wouldn't remember anything.

Everything has to die. Since some religions promote an after life, it has given people this notion that we may one day get to exist again. Since some think this, the thought of not living past this life, upsets some. If we didn't have this ideology, no one would be as upset with death, as some are.

Seems about as sick as one can be from flu without dying. Lucky you made it through.

My question: how do you feel about flu shots?

I am an advocate for getting vaccinated, but I never have gotten a flu shot.

My family did and none of them got sick. The thing about flu shots is, even if a certain strand isn't in the vaccine, you wouldnt get that strand as bad as you would if you didn't get a flu shot. |

After this whole thing, I will get my flu shot, and I suggest that everyone do the same.

I was in college at the time too. I remember people doing bar crawls with t-shirts that said "Swine '09." And there were jokes because Obama had just been elected and people said "They said we'd get a black president when pigs fly! Well, here we go... Swine Flu (flew)!" Did it bother you hearing/seeing people joke about it while you had actually been suffering from the illness?

The jokes don't bother me because people are always trying to make light of tragedy.

While this wasn't a joke; after I got out of rehab my mom told me I punched a nurse in the face, while I was in a coma. I started laughing at how ridiculous it was.

That makes me think of that Kayak commercial where the doctor is doing brain surgery, and while he's in there, he's manipulating the guy's brain to make his hands work the computer for him. I imagine the nurse touching some nerve and your hand just coming up... smack!

They said I was aware, somewhat, because the coma was induced, so my frustration of being restrained, resulted in a nurse getting punched. I have no recollection of this.

The nurses told me I was trying to pull out the ecmo machine so they had to put me in restraints.

So you don't remember anything while you were under? No dreams feelings nothing?

I had one horrific nightmare, of a devilish like man, with a British voice telling me I'm going to see each of my family members die.

The saddest dream I had was my ex, who, in my opinion, was that one girl I let slip away, was comforting me on my grandmother's dock, saying, "you'll get through this, I'll be here when you recover." When I finally did wake up, even though my family was there, It took me a while to get over that dream. It sucked that she wasn't there.

I have always been intrigued with what people remember from being in a coma. I feel like the dream with your ex sounded very comforting and peaceful. The devil man, I'm sorry you experienced that but I am so interested! I also sub to r/creepy so...

I am right with you. I love dark shit; horror movies, black comedy, ect.

It was comforting, but waking up remembering she was with another guy wasn't so comforting.

A bit of a different question here: What major change(s) happened in the world while you were in the coma that affected you the most? How long did it take you to adjust to the changes?

I missed my brothers 24th birthday and, believe it or not, I was surprised to know that prince died. Other than that, not a whole lot happened.

Why did you need the tracheotomy if the issue was with your lungs?

The ventilator wouldn't work, and my mouth doesn't open wide enough to fit a tube down my throat, so the only option left was to put a trach in my neck.

What was it like falling asleep and waking up 1,5 months later?

It was like waking up the day after I was induced. Even when they told me I was out for a month and a half, it really didnt hit that hard. I was a little upset to see all the trees and plants were green because when I went nothing had bloomed yet.....

I'm glad you made it. I'm sure this was one stressful situation for everyone from yourself, your family and the hospital staff.

What did the doctor's tell your family while you were fighting? Did they say it didn't look good, if it was wait and see or were they confident in their treatment?

When my first arrived at the hospital, she was greeted by 6 doctors, which she knew was bad because you rarely can get a hold of a doctor. They were optimistic, but at the same time they said it could both ways. during the first few weeks i was bad shape; I had a high fever almost the whole time.

The thing that sucked for my mom was she went through this with her husband around the same age I am. He flew through a windshield and was in a coma fro three months. His brain reset and he had to learn how to do everything all over again. The doctors told my mom that her husband would not be the guy she married. So my mom was rally struggling......

My mom told me that I really made light of how bad it was. My mom asked the doctor, "When do you think my son will be out of the woods." He said, " If he can get out of ICU."

How is it that you almost died? You were young and healthy, right? I got the swine flu that year, and it was more or less a normal flu, perhaps more painful in the chest/lungs, but that's about it.

My lungs had completely shut down. From when they induced the coma, a nurse had to pump oxygen into my lungs for 5 hrs before Dr Gucci, from Penn Presbyterian flew over in a helicopter with the portable ECMO. The doc said I had 2 hrs to live, if the ECMO didn't show up.

Why do you think it was so bad for you? Just bad luck? Prior lung condition? Compromised immune system?

It was bad because I decided to wait until I had a 104.5 fever to go to the hospital.

What is your favorite species of bird?

While I was in upstate NY with the family, I saw this bird dive in and out of the water and it looked really odd. I found out it was a Anhinga or snake bird.

So what now? I saw you are going back to college. Are you going to study the same thing?

Yea, I have to redo my second semester again, so that sucks, but we all face setbacks. I am still going to major in clinical psychology. I am more determined them ever.

Were you awake while on ECMO? Did you have a chance to move at all while on it?

I was put on ECMO the same day I was put under an induced coma. I had it on for 3 weeks, so when I woke up I didn't have the ECMO hooked up to me. I was also paralyzed because you can't move while on ECMO.

However, it was hard to sleep with the trach in my neck.

Is there anything that the ICU docs did or didn't do that helped you to deal with the psychological burden of being that sick?

Congrats on making it out btw... If you've been on ECMO you've been closer to death than almost anyone, and lived to tell the tale! Best of luck with college... If you can beat swine flu you can do anything!

While in an induced coma they had me on propofol, but they couldn't get me out of the coma because I kept freaking out. The doctor called my mom and asked how my personality ways and my mom explained how I love a good intellectual debate/conversation and how I have a little bit of an anxiety problem

After telling them that, they dropped the propofol and put me on seroquel. After that, I started coming out of the coma.

Have you ever met others affected by H1N1 like yourself? In 2009 I got it and was in and out of hospitals and it ended up attacking my nervous system. I developed a type of Polyneuropathy and it really harmed the nerves in my legs. I am still learning how to walk again. Glad you're okay. Must've been hell

I am sorry to hear you had such a bad experience with it. I have not met anyone else with H1N1.

I had H1N1 too, but was fortunate enough that it didn't impact my lungs too badly. I was very, very out of it for about a week, and in total spent two weeks sick as a dog and another week after getting over the weakness and residual pain. People often don't believe me when I say I had swine flu, or try to minimise how bad it is, and I try to describe how it feels, to give them an idea that it's no joke. I say it was like getting the flu when you already have the flu.

So, my question for you is - how would you describe your experience of the flu before the lung issues properly kicked in - say compared to a normal flu? Also, do you now (or did you previously) get yearly flu vaccinations? Lastly, has this changed your outlook on sickness, and end of life / death and death care?

I came home from college on April 5th, and I sort of had a headache, but it was tolerable, but out of no where I got really sick. The chills kicked instantaneously, which I've never experienced before. I suddenly felt really weak and worst of all was the coughing and the feeling of disconnect to the world. After two days of a raising fever, which got to 104.5 before I went into the hospital. It was a rough two days.

It's only been a few months since I've been out, and I haven't gotten my flu shot yet, but I will for now on.

The only thing that has changed for me is what I do in public places. After I go to a store I use hand sanitizer.

My view on death is the same; I am not afraid to die, even when I'm staring death in the face.

Everything has to die. Since some religions promote an after life, it has given people this notion that we may one day get to exist again. Since some think this, the thought of not living past this life, upsets some. If we didn't have this ideology, no one would be as upset with death, as some are.

I contracted H1N1 as well during this time while I was in college. I didn't really have any harsh side effects, it mainly seemed like a really bad cold. The only reason I found out I had it was due to a friend getting diagnosed. I went I about 2 weeks after the bad part of what I thought was a cold was over and was told that I had it. Worst part was that I joked with a professor about it when I asked if I could skip a lecture because I wasn't feeling well. He still made me go to the lecture.

Anyways, did you have any preexisting medical issues prior to getting really sick? Myself and two of my friends had very mild symptoms, but we played varsity athletics in college and we're in pretty ridiculously good shape at the time.

I didn't have an prior medical conditions. I was overweight, which raised my blood pressure a bit, so that could've contributed to the new heart condition.

Gingers always live through the worst. I'm joking, but how much work did it take to get your leg muscles back in shape?

It only took a week of rehab; an hrs each day working leg and arm muscles.

Do you think you would have been better off going to the hospital sooner? I had H1N1, unknowingly, but we went to the doctor when I had a 102 fever and could barely walk. The doctor took a nasal swab, and the immediate result was H1N1+. He strongly recommended that I be checked into the hospital until the thorough 24 hour results came back (the results were also positive). They immediately put me on Tamiflu, Relenza, and a nebulizer, and I was released 2 days later. I guess you could say I got lucky, due to the intensity and outcome of others experiences, but do you feel the serious, genuinely life threatening, part could have been avoided?

It wouldn't have been as bad if I didn't wait and got on tamiflu.

Did your job and college take you back? How hard was it getting back into rythm?

The doctors wondered if id have any cognitive problems, but I dont, which is amazing. My mom knew the GM at my work, so she said I could come back when I was ready. I start college in Sept.

It wasnt that hard getting back into the swing of things. I took a few weeks of depression and anxiety; especially coming off all the medications I was on while in the hospital. Other then that I am pretty much back to normal.....It didn't take that long.

Did they say how you got it? How did they confirm it was really H1N1?

I could have gotten from college, work, or anywhere else I've gone. The doctors in Penn had 15 other cases of the swine flu, that were just as bad as me and there was no connection between any of us.