[transplant99]

Holy crap.....Claybrooks illness earlier this year almost cost him his life.

Great read.

Sally Claybrooks knew that something was wrong.

“I had been trying to reach him. I couldn’t catch him in his office so I called (Stampeders d-line coach Corey) Mace and asked how was DeVone, where was my son, had he talked to him?” Sally says from that same phone in Martinsville.

“He told me he called in sick, I was like, ‘What?’ DeVone never, ever, ever called in sick at work before, no matter what. He always reports to work.”

“So I had called one of his friends, his neighbours and I asked if they could check on him because I was calling his phone and couldn’t get him,” Sally says.

“She put him on the phone and he said, ‘Mom, I’m OK, I’m going to be OK.’ I said, ‘Oh Lord, he’s not OK, he’s not.’ I told her to call 911 and get him to the emergency room ASAP and I’d be on the next flight out there.”

DeVone doesn’t remember his neighbour finding him in his home, unconscious. He doesn’t remember that initial conversation with his mom on the phone, the ambulance ride or how he was administered into Foothills Hospital in Calgary.

He woke up in the hospital 18 hours after he’d passed out to find his mom, the doctors and a diagnosis that would change his life.

It took about three and a half days for DeVone to be fully awake and cognizant, Sally says. While doctors worked with him, they told her how close of a call her son just had.

“They told me that DeVone was very, very sick and if he would have been a day late that he would not be here today,” she says.

“They told me that his sugar was up extremely high and that his sodium was as well and that his sugar had been high for about three months. They were surprised that he was able to walk, talk or anything and that his organs had not shut down. They had no idea how he was living.”

“They say I’m a walking miracle,” DeVone says. “The doctor said, ‘In 40 years of being in the ER and ICU I’ve never seen someone come out with no problems, no (issues with) kidney, liver, feet, vision.’

“The doctor said, 35, 40 minutes more later and I wouldn’t be here.”

https://www.cfl.ca/2018/11/17/walkin...s-brush-death/