LE MARS, Iowa | Linda Groetken walked into UnityPoint Health -- St. Luke's in Sioux City on Feb. 19. She remembers a person at the front door asking if she needed a wheelchair.
Her next memory? It came about 10 days later.
"I was put in a medically-induced coma on Feb. 20 and stayed in it for nine to 10 days," she said.
Her problems, or the family's problems, didn't end there. Husband Neil Groetken was standing at Linda's bedside on Feb. 22 when he began to sweat.
"My mom had been in the hospital for 66 days in 1989. It got to me. I felt like I was falling off a cliff," Neil said. "The feeling lasted for two minutes and I could not stop it. I told my son Ryan that I thought I'd faint."
Neil went down. Thankfully, he collapsed in a hospital, within quick reach of medical staffers who conducted CPR for a very brief time.
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"The kids were worried they were going to lose both of us," Neil said.
Neil awakened quickly, feeling a sharp pain in his right side, the result of broken ribs due to chest compressions, not that uncommon in this emergency situation.
"My heart had stopped, but I didn't have a heart attack," Neil said. "There was no damage to my heart."
As Linda lay comatose, doctors worked to address her upper respiratory failure and Type A flu. Meantime, Neil had to get fluids and nourishment. He'd become severely dehydrated and weak since his wife's hospitalization, suffering from Type A flu and acute kidney failure.
Neil was discharged on Feb. 24, ending a short two-day stay. He immediately visited his wife on another floor.
Linda wasn't discharged until March 23. She suffered a slight stroke three weeks later. She also had surgery one month later to remove her gall bladder. She was diagnosed with Stage IV C.O.P.D. and asthma.
But she's still up and about, though moving at a different pace than customary. She admitted that she "laid low" all summer.
"They told her that for each day she was in a medically-induced coma, it might take one month for her muscle mass to come back," Neil said.
"I tire out a lot more easily and my immune system has been weakened," she said. "But I love going to the games our grandchildren play in."
She hit the Little League baseball games during the early summer, and transitioned as a fan to football this fall. She resumed her church-going activity, but tries to be careful about exposure to others.
She got a flu shot already this fall.
"I can't wait for this year to be over," she said with a laugh. "It's been a tough year for us, but we're still here."
Neil recalled a text he sent during Linda's trip to the hospital. The Albuterol and Zithromax ( Z-Pak,) which had worked in the past, weren't working their magic. He called on a higher power while texting a family member. "When she went in to the ICU, I texted out seven words: 'Jesus is the awesome God we serve.'"
The Groetkens will celebrate Thanksgiving a couple of times this month, as will many sets of grandparents. They'll celebrate with children and grandchildren one week and then repeat the process.
Neil looked at Linda and glanced at the calendar, trying to pinpoint precisely which days they were both hospitalized, separated by one or two floors for a couple of days.
