The 18-year-old has been undergoing surgeries, on a ventilator and experiencing brain swelling.
In Pittsburgh, a teenage girl became seriously unwell and ended up in a medically induced coma after a UTI went untreated.
Katie Sullivan is a Central Valley High School graduate who is a gymnast and freshman softball player at Waynesburg University.
Her mother, Shannon and Katie’s family has been by her side hoping for a miracle.
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“She’s a perfectly healthy 18-year-old, who on Sunday was fighting for her life,” she told WPXI.
Katie’s family explained that she had been suffering from lower back pain which she assumed was from her athletic training.
“This has been incredibly scary. Katie is not one to complain about much because she’s very athletic,” Katie’s father Tim told the broadcast channel.
But just a few days after celebrating Christmas at home, she was in hospital with low blood pressure and high heartbeat.
Even if you think it’s nothing, please get it checked. Because never in a million years, and I’m a nurse practitioner, would I think she would be here with renal failure, intubated, and being given a dire diagnosis at 18.
“When they did the testing, they found she had a UTI for about a month that actually caused a hole in her kidney. It caused an abscess in her liver into her back muscle and behind her kidney. She was in septic shock,” Shannon told WPXI.
Earlier this week Katie was able to move again head and even gave a thumbs up to her mom when asked if she wanted to go home.
“For the first time, I asked her if she wanted to go home, and she shook her head yes. Then they asked her if she was in pain, and she shook her head no. I told her if she wanted to go home she had to put a thumbs up, and she did. From not moving on Sunday, and telling us hour by hour, today is miraculous,” she added.
While doctors believe she has a long road ahead still, Katie’s family wants to send a message to the public: do not ignore back pain.
“Even if you think it’s nothing, please get it checked. Because never in a million years, and I’m a nurse practitioner, would I think she would be here with renal failure, intubated, and being given a dire diagnosis at 18,” Shannon said.
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