Photo courtesy of Brittney Knox-Mensah, communications manager for BBMC
Lynlee Nichols and her husband, Cooper, sit with their new son, Riley James, who was born Aug. 8.
When Lynlee Nichols came to Brookwood Baptist Medical Center in Homewood in September 2021, doctors saw what her doctors at a Montgomery hospital had seen: scarring in the lungs, poor tolerance of a ventilator and a low chance of survival.
The 34-year-old Montgomery woman, 33 at the time, had just given birth via emergency cesarean section Aug. 8 to her second son, Riley James, while battling COVID-19 and had to be placed on a ventilator. While Riley was born fully healthy and tested negative for the virus, she was not able to see him until he was 3 months old due to the seriousness of her illness.
After she did not improve, she was sent to Brookwood, which placed her on ECMO (extracorporeal membrane oxygenation) in hopes of possibly getting her ready for a lung transplant at either Vanderbilt or Emory, said Dr. Stirling Shirah, a hospitalist who took care of Nichols at Brookwood. An ECMO machine essentially performs the function of the lungs, adding oxygen to the blood, Shirah said.
While Brookwood does not perform transplants, they were told by Emory that if Nichols could learn to walk while using the ECMO machine, they could take her. That isn’t easy, and Dr. Ronald Roan, an intensivist who works at Brookwood, said it could have also been fatal. If Nichols had accidentally gotten disconnected from the machine, she would have died instantly, with no chance to bring her back. It wasn’t the first time doctors worried whether she would survive her battle with the virus.
“We didn’t know if she was going to survive the night to get placed on ECMO the following day,” Roan said.
But soon, Nichols began defying the odds. She began improving while on ECMO, and doctors were able to wean her off of the machine. Surprisingly, her oxygen levels improved despite receiving less support from the machine, Shirah said. Eventually, Nichols came off the ventilator and after more than 120 days in the hospital, she came home to be with her family in December, without needing a transplant.
“I believe it was a divine intervention,” Shirah said. “She should not have improved.”
Shirah said as much as the doctors would love to take the credit for her recovery, he believes the power of the great care they sought to provide was matched by the power of prayer.
Nichols echoed Shirah’s thoughts and said the power of prayer is amazing.
“There’s nothing our God can’t do,” Nichols said. “Miracles do happen.”
Nichols said she learned to appreciate every day she has, especially with her children, 2-year-old Warren and Riley. She missed the first three months of Riley’s life and said the moment she met him was overwhelming. There were “tears of joy and tears of sadness for what I missed,” Nichols said.
While she missed the first three months of Riley’s life, she is looking forward instead of focusing on the past.
“I’m so blessed I’m getting to live the rest of my life with him,” Nichols said.
Nichols began her ordeal in July, when both her and Warren were diagnosed with RSV (respiratory syncytial virus) when she was 36 weeks pregnant. Shortly after that, she contracted COVID-19. Due to the pregnancy, she said doctors did not know what she could take to combat the virus without impacting the baby.
Shirah said the Delta variant, which was prevalent in the fall of 2021, affected pregnant women more than previous strains. The impact of the virus on them is made worse due to the fact that expectant mothers are already immunosuppressed, making it harder to fight off illness.
A few days after the C-section, Nichols was started on a bypass and intubated a few days later, which also meant she had to be sedated for many weeks. At one point, her oxygen levels were at 36%, which she said “is not compatible with life.”
When doctors in Montgomery realized they had done all they could do for her, they transferred her to Brookwood, where doctors including Shirah, Roan and Dr. Peyton Paisley worked to find a solution.
“We kind of had to think outside the box with her,” Shirah said.
After the team decided to try and use ECMO as a bridge to a lung transplant, Shirah spent six hours on the phone with different transplant centers trying to find a match and developing a plan.
Seeing a young mother go through what Nichols did was heartbreaking and has unfortunately been common in the past two years due to the pandemic, Shirah said. There is a “feeling of helplessness,” along with frustration and anger at the situation.
“You shouldn’t lose someone in their 30s, never mind (someone) with a 2-year-old and a newborn,” Shirah said.
Roan said the use of ECMO in Nichols’ case was unusual, given that studies have shown that patients who are on a ventilator for more than seven days, like Nichols, do not benefit from use of the machine.
Seeing Nichols recover to the point she didn’t even need a transplant was humbling, Roan said.
“It makes me question sometimes what I think I know,” Roan said. “It’s very encouraging.”
While the transplant wasn’t needed, the recovery process was difficult, Nichols said. She described it as going from being a fully functioning adult to “basically being a toddler.” She had to learn again how to talk, swallow, sit up, lift her hands, walk and more, she said.
“It was very intense,” Nichols said.
The medical staff, from doctors to therapists, helped her heal and allow her to go home to her family and to her job as a veterinarian, she said.
“If it weren’t for the medical teams … I wouldn’t have made it,” Nichols said.
Her mom, Kim Powell, and her husband, Cooper, were her “rocks,” taking care of things at home and her children. She said they are the “No. 1 reason I’m alive.”
“They didn’t take no and ‘terminal illness’ for an answer,” Nichols said.
When Nichols came home, she was met with a parade and banners celebrating her return, a sign of how much she is loved by her friends, family and neighbors.
“I have never felt so blessed,” Nichols said.
Nichols missed Halloween and Thanksgiving, but she said she was thankful to be home for Christmas and to see her family. “We weren’t expecting me to see another Christmas.”
