By Lou Mumford
The South Bend Tribune
NILES, Ind. — A few weeks ago, Travis Rader called his mom, Nancy Rader, of Niles, and told her he was having trouble breathing.
“I said I feel like I’m dying. I was just joking,’' he recalled Tuesday. “Little did I know it was close to the truth.’'
A paramedic the last 13 years for Medic 1 in Benton Harbor, the 39-year-old Niles man had never before had a serious illness. But during his 24-hour shift with Medic 1 on June 10, he felt “lousy,” he said, so he stopped the next day by the Lakeland Regional Medical Center in St. Joseph in hopes of picking up a prescription for an antibiotic.
At that point, he wasn’t that concerned.
“I had a cough, a slight body ache and a little bit of a fever. I thought I’d maybe take some Tylenol for it,” he said. “I wasn’t going to bother anybody about it.”
It was fortunate for him that, before obtaining any medication, he was required to undergo tests in the hospital’s emergency room. When the results came back, a physician Rader’s acquainted with at the hospital didn’t have to say anything for Rader to become concerned.
“He was scared. I could see it in his face,” he said.
Further tests revealed he had Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome, a relatively rare affliction of the lungs. Rader was admitted to the hospital on June 17 and, the next day, was hooked up to a ventilator and placed on life support.
He has no memory, he said, of the ensuing two-week period in which steroids were administered to halt the damage to his lungs. By then, they were functioning at only about 20 percent capacity, he said.
What’s worse, said his wife, Patty, is ARDS has a 40 percent fatality rate.
“His oxygen levels were so low that they were concerned about brain damage,” she said. “His doctor said he had a very severe case and that it didn’t look good.”
In addition to the steroids, factors on her husband’s side were his relative youth and the fact he neither smoked nor drank, his wife said. His family’s fervent prayers also played a role, she said.
Rader said he doesn’t know why he developed ARDS but it apparently resulted from an infection. What he does know is the relief he felt when he was taken off the ventilator and the toll the experience took on his body.
“I couldn’t even stand hardly,” he said.
The silver lining is the support he received through the ordeal. An avid motorcyclist who regularly attends with his wife the Dowagiac Seventh-day Adventist Church, he’s not a member of the Christian Motorcycle Association yet members of the group regularly visited him and Patty at the hospital and included him in prayer circles.
Also, because Rader’s health insurance through Medic 1 won’t cover all his medical bills, donations have been received from the Howard Township Fire Department and Southwestern Michigan Community Ambulance Service, where Rader once worked. A fundraiser at the Niles Pizza Hut last week raised about $600 for the couple.
Rader said Scott Clark, too, of Clark’s Service in Niles has pitched in.
“I’ve known Scott for years. He has donated ... and since I’ve been ill, he has done work on our cars and hasn’t charged us anything,” Rader said.
Now, Rader is on several medications and is breathing with the help of air tanks as he regains his strength. Although it can take six months to two years for the lungs of ARDS patients to heal, Rader said he expects to be back at Medic 1 sooner rather than later.
When he does return, he’ll have a much better handle on ARDS should he encounter it in a patient.
“I didn’t even know what it was,” he said.
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