Photo: Aimee Hollis in ICU, courtesy Aimee Hollis
Hollis says, “They got the on-call OB-GYN to do a physical examination and that’s when he found the actual infection in my cervix.” None of the staff there had seen a TSS infection before, she says. “I said ‘what are you talking about?’ I didn’t know how severe it was and I credit that to the doctors in the emergency room.”
Hollis had a surgical procedure to remove the infection, but despite doctors’ best efforts to save her, she remained critically ill in the ICU for five days. She was given her last rites TWICE, and her family was called in to tell her goodbye. Then, hanging on to life, she slowly began to improve. After five more days in the hospital but out of ICU she was well enough to go home.
Now she is IMPLORING women to listen to their bodies. Doctors never found the offending tampon, which means she removed it before her symptoms were desperate, but after the damage had been done. “I knew I was sick – I was doing all the right things but still getting rapidly worse. It could’ve been too late for me but thank God, it’s not. Always question something if you’re unsure,” she says.
So Mamas, next time your monthly time comes, I hope you will remember Aimee. Her two kids still have her, and THAT is a miracle, but her illness was preventable, and she doesn’t want ANYONE ELSE to go through toxic shock syndrome like she did.
