Mission ambulance crew was lifesaver

Editor,

I am writing to send my deepest thanks to the Mission Ambulance. The people who responded to the emergency call on Nov. 7, 2005, were the first people who helped save my life. Doctors and nurses made heroic efforts in the weeks following that night to keep me alive, but the St. Ignatius Ambulance crew was the beginning of what went right.

Other than struggling to breath, I had no discernible symptoms. It took a CT scan at Community Hospital in Missoula 12 hours later to diagnose necrotizing fasciitis. The CDC in Atlanta, Ga., defines a rare disease as one occurring 200,000 times a year. Last year in the U.S. there were approximately 10,000 cases of invasive disease, only 600 of which were necrotizing fasciitis. Odds are that I was your first "flesh-eating bacteria" call and I hope it was your last. In the battle between this particular illness and a human body, the illness usually wins.

The operators at Lake County 911 told me I called at 12:31 a.m. They dispatched at 12:32 and the ambulance arrived at my house on Airport Road exactly seven minutes later. Amazing. Any more time and lack of oxygen may have resulted in more permanent damage. My last memories that night are of the three people who took me to St. Luke Hospital.

I do not know your names, but I clearly remember your competence, efficiency, calmness, and kindness. They are my last memories before traumatic amnesia and a month-long coma took over.

I am recovering now and am profoundly happy to be back home. I feel doubly blessed to live in this town, with neighbors who took care of my house during an eight month absence and with a local, all-volunteer ambulance service that quietly goes about the work of saving people's lives. If I had Oprah's money, there would be nothing volunteer about the job you do. Please accept, instead, my boundless thanks and lasting gratitude.

Shannon Really

St. Ignatius