The Jennifer Vaughan story: one Airman's comeback journey from near death

by Karen Petitt
375th Air Mobility Wing Public Affairs

1/2/2014 - SCOTT AIR FORCE BASE, Ill. -- There are words Staff Sgt. Jennifer Vaughan faintly remembers hearing from her family and fiancé as she slowly woke up Feb. 18, 2013 from a 62-day induced coma, but it was the look on their faces that made her understand that something was "very wrong."

Unable to respond and comprehend the magnitude of the ordeal they spoke of, she shut her eyes and went back to sleep. For this once athletic and fit 30-year-old Airman who had just returned from a five-month deployment in Afghanistan, it would take several more months for her to fully wake up and regain the strength to adjust to her new life--one that a diagnosis of acute myeloid leukemia, a type of blood cancer, and a life-saving medical procedure had changed forever.

As she lay in her hospital bed at the Siteman Cancer Center in St. Louis, Jennifer's family helped her fill in the missing pieces of more than two months of darkness. She remembered feeling ill back in October of 2012 after she returned from her deployment where she served as a public health technician. She thought maybe it was just a combination of the flu and adjusting back to the States that was causing her fatigue and shortness of breath.

For her fiancé, Master Sgt. Dan Grabski, the first in a series of terrifying moments came when she could not stop violently coughing. He rushed her into a local emergency room Dec. 16, 2012, and two days later she was flown to Barnes Jewish Medical Center in St. Louis where her condition continued to deteriorate until she was put on life support. The cancer had directed itself into her lungs and caused them to bleed, thus preventing the oxygenation of blood.

So, on Christmas Day in 2012 when Dan should have been opening presents with his three children and proposing to her as he had originally planned, he and her parents were instead presented with a difficult choice of whether or not to take her off life support as her lungs had completely failed despite being on a ventilator. No one was willing to let her go but they did not know what to do.

It was Dr. Rizwan Romee, a Washington University oncologist with the Siteman Cancer Center, who also believed it was too soon to give up and suggested a treatment for her that is normally only performed on newborn children and had never been tried before on adult patients with this condition.

Dr. Romee explained, "I see her parents crying. I see her boyfriend next to her crying. One of my nurses told me that he had planned to propose to her. I felt desperate and helpless, and it was in that moment that I felt we should try the ECMO machine, which acts as an artificial lung. The machine (Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation) pumps blood from the body and oxygenates it and then pumps it back into the body. It's very risky, and while most infants are on this machine for a few days, Jennifer was on this machine for 45 days."

Adding to that risk was the fact that Jennifer was also undergoing chemotherapy for her leukemia while being on the ECMO, which Dr. Romee said was "completely unchartered territory for the entire team of physicians treating her as nobody knew what to expect."

During this time, Dan brought the engagement ring into her most every day during his visits to be by her side. His life had a new normal to it, and he said he's grateful to his unit, the 375th Aerospace Medicine Squadron, for their flexibility and support. Her unit, also the 375th AMDS and more specifically the people in her Public Health Flight, went "above and beyond" in offering their support as well.

Tech. Sgt. Miranda Minshew, her supervisor, decided to put a team together to raise money as part of the St. Louis half-marathon in support of the Leukemia Lymphoma Society. They raised $5,300 and named their group "Team Hope" in honor of Jennifer. They also decorated her hospital room--a place she would stay until July 2013--and there were more fundraising activities that provided gift cards for Jennifer's family.

"My flight is my family, and we've come together in so many ways to support our Airman," said Minshew. "I believe we've been changed for the better, and we can truly say that we live up to the Airman's creed that "We Will Never Leave an Airman Behind."

Miraculously, Jennifer not only recovered from the hemorrhaging, but her leukemia has achieved complete remission.

Dr. Romee said, "She has an excellent prognosis with the chances of her leukemia ever coming back as being quite low. Jennifer changed my perspective toward dealing with very sick patients. She taught me to trust my instincts in desperate situations and to try 'out-of-the box ideas' before giving up on those who may have few, if any, treatment options."

He also said she was lucky to be in one of the few centers in the country to have the expertise to perform this procedure. A team of surgeons and nurses rushed to place her on the ECMO that Christmas Day before she developed permanent brain damage from the lack of oxygen, and the intensive care team monitored her every minute for six weeks until she came off the ECMO and ventilator support.

With the worst behind her, Jennifer began to focus on her rehabilitation and recovery--and to live.

"It breaks my heart to think about the moment of decision before Dr. Romee stepped in and how hard that was for my family," she said. "I want to tell everyone that there is so much out there that can help us, and we shouldn't give up so easy. I can't imagine what would have happened if it weren't for Dr. Romee. In fact, I'm indebted to the entire team of doctors and nurses who took care of me ... how can I say thank you for my life back? I can't thank them enough."

With Jennifer on the mend and things looking brighter, Dan brought in a backpack with a baseball where the ring was hidden and officially proposed on March 9. It was a love of sports that brought them together--their first date being a hockey game--and for Jennifer, a St. Louis native and "huge" Cardinals fan, "it was the perfect proposal."
Now, back home and looking forward to the New Year, she reflects on how "life is so different."

"I look different. I feel different," she said. "Thankfully my cancer is in remission and at some point my lungs should be strong enough to where I won't need to carry my own oxygen. This experience was one of the hardest things I've ever gone through, but I know it was for a reason. Part of that is hopefully to help other patients who can be saved with the same procedure I was ... that would be ideal."

Also different will be life in the military which will come to end soon as she is undergoes a Medical Evaluation Board.

"I joined the Air Force to be part of something special, something bigger than myself, and I've enjoyed my time in the service. I've met lifelong friends and obviously met my future husband through the military," she said. "I spent five years in North Dakota and served proudly for my country in Afghanistan, which was an amazing experience I will never forget. I was incredibly fortunate to be stationed back in my hometown before all this happened to me, and the support from my flight showed how much the Air Force is like family. However, I know that I'm not physically able to keep up with the demands the Air Force expects from us because of tissue scarring and just how much my body has been so beat up ... so I'm OK to separate now after enduring this past year."

She said she's working on planning a very simple wedding with immediate family and in taking care of a surprise new addition to their family--her first child due in June.

"I thought I was getting ill again, but found out the great news. I'm nervous and happy, and I'm focused on being as healthy as possible for our child. It's been an incredibly challenging year filled with every emotion possible. One thing I've learned is that it's OK to feel a wide range of emotions as you work through any trauma, and that it is a necessary part of the healing process."

The smile and twinkle in her eyes have returned, said Dan, just like when they first met.

"I knew she wanted to live and to laugh again," he said. "I never gave up on her because I knew she had the strength to make it. She is an amazing woman, and I'm lucky--we're all lucky--to have her."