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Your gift to support ECMO technology saved Sydni’s life from Legionnaires’ disease
Sydni Rodabaugh was hospitalized for 18 days with Legionnaires' disease. She spent the first week in a medically-induced coma. Thanks to support from donors like you, she was able to get the specialized care that she needed to survive.
You helped provide Mercy Health - St. Vincent Medical Center with a medical process known as extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO). Sydni's doctors used a machine to take the burden from her heart and lungs while they treated the bacterial infection that was making her sick.
“My doctors told me it's very surprising that I pulled through. They said they'd never seen someone with Legionnaires' as young as me."
“I'm very grateful. I don't think I'd be alive today if I didn't have the option to be on ECMO."
Today, Sydni is recovering and grateful that donors to the Mercy Health Foundation - Greater Toledo made sure St. Vincent’s had the tools to give her a fighting chance. In addition to purchasing the equipment, the Foundation also funds the program that makes it available for long-term patients at St. Vincent's.
"My doctors say that as long as I keep working out and doing my breathing exercises everything should be ok. It'll go back to normal," she says.
Sydni thinks often of the medical staff who cared for her and the devotion of her family who never left her side.
“My parents went through a lot. They were there with me every day. I was very, very grateful to wake up and see them there. I have a new outlook and a greater love for my parents than I even thought possible.”