Your whole life can change without any warning.
Marlaina’s story
On September 22, 2025 Marlaina worked late at her job at the dentist office, came home, and started taking care of our kids. I got home a bit later and cooked dinner. Before she could eat her dinner, she collapsed and appeared to be having a seizure. She was rushed from our home (actual doorbell cam footage above) and taken to Northeast Georgia Medical Center. It was discovered there that she had a dissection of her left main coronary artery and total blockage of blood flow. An emergency repair was done, stents placed, and she was put on ECMO since her heart was stunned and not beating on it’s own. She was given a 15% chance or less of living. The medical teams worked diligently on her.
Her heart began beating again and she was on track to make a strong recovery. She was able to come off ECMO and was ready to come off of the intubation. The day they extubated her, she suffered a stroke in her brain. It was caught early and evacuated. While in Neuro ICU recovering it was discovered that she also had a spinal cord infarction.
134 days gone
After the incident, Marlaina was transferred from Northeast Georgia Medical Center to the Shepherd Center in Atlanta for brain and spinal cord rehabilitation. She started out in the in-patient rehab where they helped dial in medications, begin physical therapy, and learn how to live a modified lifestyle. In January of 2026, she graduated and moved to the “day program” in which she stayed on campus and continued doing therapies. Finally in February, she came home. From going out on a stretcher to returning home was 134 days. 134 days of spending the night apart. 134 days of her struggling to get better and me operating like a single parent of our baby and a young teen.
Continuing to improve and adapt
It is a slow and frustrating process for her. Living 33 years as an able-bodied person and suddenly being unable to stand and walk is a hard pill to swallow. Not to mention all the actual hard pills she has to swallow. She is stronger than she gives herself credit for. She is a testament to God, his plan, and the power of prayer. Since day one, we have heard those in healthcare and men of science explaining her survival and recovery simply as…God.
I wish there was a way to know you’re in the good old days before you’ve actually left them.
—Andy Bernard, The Office