KEARNEY, Neb. – When Jason Wasmund woke up weak and trembling on February 16, he assumed he had the flu, but in one day, his temperature dropped to 96 degrees then rose to 103.
"The second day he could not answer my questions," said his wife, Cassie. Worried, she took him to the emergency room at the Kearney Regional Medical Center.
He has been diagnosed with sepsis, a life-threatening illness that occurs when the body's response to infection causes damage to its own tissues and organs.
"He went from super-healthy to the USI Monday night," said Cassie.
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On Thursday, unable to breathe on his own, Wasmund was taken to the Nebraska Medical Center. The next day, the doctors amputated his leg to save his life. He had only a 7% chance of survival, but he broke all the obstacles.
Wasmund, 43, director of Tradehome Shoes at Hilltop Mall, returned home on March 22. He uses a wheelchair, a walker and crutches and lets his body heal while spending time with his children, Jaxon, 9, and Jaycee, 7.
Cassie and he are slowly grasping the sad reality of the past two months.
In the morning, Cassie learned that Jason's leg had to come off to save his life, she started screaming.
"I was screaming at the doctor," you can not take his leg, "but I did not know how bad it was, they had already taken care of it when they called me." , she said.
Cassie was in Omaha. Her mother, Pattie Paradise, came from Chillicothe, Missouri, when Wasmund became ill. She stayed to watch the children.
The first 24 to 48 hours after amputation were critical. The doctors again operated on to make sure that they had removed all the infection.
It took Wasmund eight days to wake up after amputation and another two days to regain consciousness.
"People coming out of this delusion can be a little confused. I did not stop thinking that we were going to Florida, but I did not understand why we had not taken off, "he said.
"I lower my eyes and see a leg. My brain still thought it was there, he said.
Wasmund did not realize that he was missing only a few days after regaining consciousness. While he was following a physical therapy, he fell back and was waiting to use his leg to prevent it, but the leg was gone. "I stopped for a second, I looked at the therapist and I knew I did not have it. I was scared. It was difficult, "he said.
Tears in her eyes, Cassie told him what had happened. "I told him that it was necessary to save his life so that he could see his children grow up," she said.
Two weeks later, he was transferred to the Madonna Rehabilitation Hospital in Omaha. He learned to move around the house, use the toilet and maneuver with crutches and his wheelchair. They made her make a peanut butter sandwich, climb stairs and more. "After three days they left me free, but a physiotherapist was shocked when I got up and got to the door with a walker," he said.
Before getting sick, he enjoyed hiking and cycling. He coached Jaxon in basketball and football and is active with Jaxon's Cub Scout troop.
Since returning home, he has been working at CHI Health Good Samaritan's fitness center to strengthen his upper body. He lost 50 pounds.
The cause of the infection remains a mystery. The doctors said that bacteria could have lingered in his body after a scratch or an old injury.
"He's healing well. We just have to take our time, "said Cassie, a substitute paraprofessional of Kearney Public Schools. In four to six months, if the healing continues at its current rate, he expects to be equipped with a prosthesis.
"Normally, I do not sit down," he says. "I got up, ate, worked 12 hours a day, went to the gym or cycled with the family, but now I'm sitting.
He is anxious to move, but he understands the need to heal slowly and carefully.
"I'm happy not to be dead, but I have to retrain my brain to see that my leg is not there," he said. "I was angry, but I try to stay positive and think about what I have, not what has gone."
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Wesley Woods battled heart disease for 20 years. He had accumulated nine heart attacks, several surgeries and a heart transplant. He was tired of hospitals. Tired of chest pain. Tired of feeling tired. Woods was lucky – he received a second transplant.
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Matthew Eledge and her husband Elliot Dougherty intend to explain to her daughter her extraordinary birth in understandable terms: that her grandmother has laid out the garden where she grew up and that her aunt, Lea Yribe, has generously provided the seeds.
Believing they were brain dead, the doctors removed the former Creighton Bluejays post-match facilitator, T. Scott Marr, from vital help. Before his family moved to a funeral home, they decided to see their father again. When they arrived, he was awake and talking.
Karla Perez was 22 weeks pregnant when she had catastrophic cerebral bleeding and was declared dead cerebral. His unborn child was alive but would not survive childbirth. The family and the doctors kept him alive. Angel was born eight weeks later.
Darnisha Ladd had never imagined that Snapchat could save her life after a stroke. But needing a precise timeline of events, doctors and their families relied on a message posted on the phone application and were able to give him a needed medication on time.
The triplets of Lindsey and Derek Teten are one in a million. Literally. The Nebraska City couple's three daughters, born at the end of June 2017, are identical and have been designed without fertility treatment. The girls were the second group of spontaneous triplets born at the Methodist Hospital for Women. The first set, also girls, was born in 2015.
Kenze Messman has been diagnosed with several chronic diseases. Sometimes her heart rate climbs, epileptic seizures send her to the ground and migraines leave her in the dark. And one of the evils is that the 17-year-old girl has allergic reactions to almost everything.
The skin of Sharan Bryson's leg was black due to lack of circulation. She felt only a sharp, throbbing pain. The leg was dead and his best option was amputation. Bryson bounced back and put his hard work to the test by running a 5K.
Chase Tiemann has had numerous surgeries in his young life, including the amputation of his left arm. The Omaha boy has a disease that causes the formation of tumors – sometimes benign, sometimes cancerous – on his body. To regain consciousness after the amputation, the Papillion Fire Department named Chase Honorary Firefighter.
Wesley Woods battled heart disease for 20 years. He had accumulated nine heart attacks, several surgeries and a heart transplant. He was tired of hospitals. Tired of chest pain. Tired of feeling tired. Woods was lucky – he received a second transplant.
Amber Kudrna was not sure she could have a child herself. After two kidney transplants, the doctors gave the Omaha woman an exhaustive list of possible complications of the pregnancy. Kudrna and her husband Adam weighed their options and in September 2018 welcomed a baby.
Joe Nolan could not relieve the pain of his son James. But he could find a way to share it. Nolan had a tattoo that arched around his head, just like his son's scar. James was born with a handful of ailments, including one that regularly requires that his skull be remodeled.
