Gaining New Vision 2525 Fox Run Parkway, Suite 204, Yankton www.yanktonsurgical.com Kynan C.Trail, MD, FACS Surgical & Non-Surgical Treatment of: Open & Laparoscopic Surgery Hernia Gallbladder Disease Appendectomy Moles & Skin Lesions Sclerosis of Spider Veins Digestive Disorders Thyroid/Parathyroid Cancer Colon & Rectal Disease VNUS Vein Procedure Colonoscopy & Upper Endoscopy And many more..... For appointments call 605-668-9670 Facilities and Outreach Clinics: Avera Sacred Heart Hospital, Yankton, SD Lewis & Clark Specialty Hospital, Yankton, SD Niobrara Valley Hospital, Lynch, NE Avera St. Benedict Hospital, Parkston, SD 18vHERVOICE MAY/JUNE 2015 When she lost her physical sight, Jenny Peterson began seeing more than she could ever have imagined. Her recently released book, "She Walked by Faith, Not by Sight," chronicles both her harrowing medical crisis and the spiritual changes it brought about in her life. It shouldn't have ever happened. It was just a sore throat that took 23-year-old Jenny Peterson to her local doctor in 1976 in DeSmet, South Dakota. Within 24 hours of receiving the prescribed medicine, Jenny had an intense reaction to her medication. She was breaking out in weeping blisters. A second severe trauma began when she was hit with a second severe reaction to an intravenous administration of Keflex given to her at the emergency room. Her eyesight was already blurry the morning she went to the ER. When she began reacting to the IV medication, her physical condition - including her eyesight quickly grew much worse. Her hometown doctor was aware her condition was quickly worsening and immediately made arrangements to transfer her to the nearby Sioux Falls hospital where she could be treated by a team of doctors. "About 10 days after I was admitted to the hospital, I had no pulse or heartbeat. The doctors called a Code Blue. I was unconscious of course, but I remember being held in God's arms that day," Jenny says. "That experience changed my life." Jenny survived her near-death experience that day, but had a long road ahead of her. She had suffered toxic epidermal necrolysis (TEN), a potentially life-threatening dermatologic disorder "characterized by widespread erythema, necrosis and bullous detachment of the epidermis and mucous membranes, resulting in exfoliation and possible sepsis and/or death." (Medscape.com) "I shed 100 percent of my skin, hair, fingernails and toenails and spent 96 days in the hospital," Jenny says. "I had also lost my eyesight. I was only the 7th person diagnosed with TEN and the first that survived it. Over time I would realize that, even during that very difficult situation, God had a plan for my life." Most often, TEN is drug induced, however the disorder can be the result of infection, malignancy and vaccinations. Some medical experts believe StevensJohnson syndrome (SJS) is the same as TEN. One difference between the two conditions is that TEN involves at least 30% of the body and SJS typically affects 10% of the body. Jenny's husband, Ron wasn't certain his wife would survive her sudden and potentially fatal ordeal. Family members helped care for the couple's two young children: Chad 5 and Heather 2. While he waited by his wife's bedside, Ron maintained a daily journal about what was happening to her, him and their children. "Chad turned six and Heather turned three while I was in the hospital," Jenny says. "The doctors did everything they could to keep me comfortable. The doctors told Ron there was a limit to the amount of physical stress my body could endure." Jenny spent 60 days in the hospital's intensive care unit. Pain medications, including Demerol, were used to help ease her intense agony. As she began to recover and plans were made for her release, physicians worked at weaning her off the pain medication. "By then I was addicted to the pain killers," Jenny says. "When I didn't get them, I had muscle cramps and a great deal of discomfort. After I left the hospital, there was a period when a nurse came to our home every evening to give me a pain medication injection. We lived just a couple of blocks from the hospital. It took a while before I was able to stop using the medication."