1001 of Life’s Little Indulgences

My name is Luc Lirette. On June 21, 2015 I began the fight of my life.

My wife Shirley and I were spending the weekend in London, Ontario to do some shopping and attend the Shania Twain concert.

I woke up on the morning of June 21^st and was experiencing chest pains and nausea.  I was sweating profusely.  I had been feeling unwell for several weeks after having surgery to remove my Lap band, as it had eroded, but today I felt different. Shirley rushed me to London Health Sciences Centre’s Victoria Hospital.

The ER doctors assumed I was having a heart attack.  After Shirley provided my health history, they began suspecting I had sepsis. The team quickly worked to stabilize me and I received a CT Scan to determine the source of my infection.

Shortly after the scan, I went into septic shock followed by cardiac arrest. It took the doctors and nurses ten minutes to revive me. My wife was told I had only a 10 percent chance of surviving.

I was suffering from acute kidney failure, and I fell into a coma. Again, I experienced another cardiac arrest, when my blood pressure dropped to 11/10. At one point I had sixteen individual medication pumps delivering medicine to keep me alive.

I was on full life support for a brief period, followed by assisted breathing with help of a tracheotomy. For the two and a half weeks I was in a coma, I received Prismaflex Continuous Dialysis and then progressed to regular dialysis.

Finally, July 21, 2015, I was transferred home to the North Bay Regional Health Centre.

Throughout my treatment, both in London and here in North Bay, doctors pumped approximately sixty-two litres of fluid into me. I had multiple CT Scans, Echo Cardiograms and there was a possibility my right leg would be amputated.

I am so grateful for the incredible medical team in London that saved my life last June.  And the support I’ve received at NBRHC since returning home in July has been amazing. The nurses and physiotherapy specialists at NBRHC helped me learn to walk again.

After many months of rehabilitation, physiotherapy, determination and support, I am back at work full-time. In appreciation of the care I received I am putting together a cookbook to raise funds to support Sepsis Care at my hospital.

I am working on collecting 1001 indulgent recipes for my book, but I need your help!

Please help me by emailing your favourite ‘indulgent’ recipes to me at lucandshirley@fibreop.ca. Please include your name for how you’d like to be recognized for your recipe submission.

Thank you for making this cookbook a reality and helping make a difference in the lives of patients experiencing sepsis in North Bay and area.