She was tired and had a little sunburn rash on her leg or so she thought.

Then came the headaches, the high fever, and one morning this past June Christina Pearson woke up in her Mahoning Township home to find her right leg was swollen twice the size of her left.

“I started to feel like I was just not myself,” she said. “Being a nurse for many years, I thought it was no big deal. I had not been sleeping or eating much. I just felt out of it so my husband decided we’d better go to the hospital.”

A matter of life and death

Then, for this mother of two young boys, Christina’s life spiraled into serious jeopardy in just a matter of minutes. Doctors found her blood pressure was dropping. The rash on her swollen leg was now full of large blisters. Just seconds later, her kidney’s stopped functioning and the rest of the organs in her body were beginning to shut down. She tested negative for COVID-19.

Outside her intensive care room, her husband Russell was told that she might not make it through the night. At first, it was believed her trauma was caused by a spider bite, but tests confirmed that his wife’s diagnosis was determined to be septic shock, a life-threatening condition when blood pressure drops to a dangerously low level caused by a bacterial infection.

Doctors immediately began to stabilize her blood pressure and pump antibiotics into Christina’s body in hopes of killing the infection. They ran more tests to determine the cause of the blisters on her swollen leg.

“I thought that I might have to lose my leg to remove the infection,” she said, “and then I thought I might die leaving my husband to care for our 14 year-old son Jonathan and our 8 year-old son Benjamin without their mother.”

Doctors placed her on a dialysis machine in an attempt to save her kidneys and rid her body of all the toxins. Meanwhile, Christina continued to worry about her own survival.

“I was fully aware what was going on,” she said. “I was in the ICU for a week. My husband, my mom, and my oldest son came to see me, but the nurses advised not to have Benjamin, my youngest, come in the room because he might become frightened from the port that had been inserted in my neck. I was able to face time him.”

Another concern was that Christina might have an allergic reaction to the medicine that was being pumped into her body. To set her mind at ease, she relied on her faith in God to help her get through the ordeal.

On the mend

The dialysis machine restored her kidney function and she began to feel better. The nurses at St. Luke’s got her out of bed and had her use a walker to move about so she could get strength back in her legs. The nurses showed her mother and her husband how to change the bandages on the wounds in her infected leg which needed skin that was grafted from her upper thighs.

Christina returned home and needed more care from visiting nurses for three weeks. She got strong enough to go to St. Luke’s for skin care once a week. She also received physical therapy.

During her recovery, Christina, a 1989 graduate of Lehighton High School, had time to reflect upon her life. She had received a college degree in Christian ministry and journalism from Asbury College in Kentucky and then worked at a retail job before she began to minister homeless men at a facility in Allentown as a case manager and writer for their company newsletter.

She went on to receive a registered nursing degree from LCCC in 2013. She also worked 11 years at the Allentown Rescue Center for the mentally ill and the drug addicted before working part time at Carbon County CareNet.

Gratitude and going forward

“I am so grateful for the doctors and nurses at St. Luke’s for literally saving my life,” she said. “Now, I’m focusing on getting stronger before thinking about getting another job. I might even continue to write a novel I began years ago.”

Through her ordeal, Christina has learned not be so stubborn about seeking medical help when something goes wrong with her body.

“As a nurse, I tell people who get sick to get medical help and now I’m going to pay more attention to my own needs, especially when it involves a very high fever.”

As her health continues to improve, a very grateful Christina Pearson has set her sights on enjoying her family and appreciating everything that life has to offer.