Resurrection and Transformation

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A lot of life-changing events can happen in a couple of months. This is the story of two unforgettable months that transformed me. Although I nearly died, there’s a happy ending. Please read all the way to the end of this blog for the romantic conclusion.

A calm day on the lagoon outside my apartment.

My story starts in Kosrae where, since January, I’ve been teaching Pacific Island Ecology at the College of Micronesia. I love this class. I think the students do, too. We take lots of field trips.

Field trip to the Ka forest
Field trip to the Aquaculture Center
Field trip to learn about invasive species

Teaching only one class, I have lots of free time to enjoy Kosrae’s natural beauty with water sports and hikes. The harrowing part of this story starts on March 30 when Stella and I decided to hike across the island. On the map, this looked like a pleasant stroll up the Innem River valley, over the ridge about 130m elevation, and then down the Okat River valley. An uneventful 4- or 5-hour hike — or so we thought.

Topographic map of Kosrae
View of the Sleeping Lady and our route over her

It was a beautiful day with a few puffy clouds. We started our hike after lunch, planning to be home by dinner. The first part of our hike was fairly easy going through beautiful, untouched forests. The vegetation was stunning. Flowers were everywhere. The trees were full of birds.

A Ka tree deep in the interior
Beautiful flowers everywhere
A waterfall to cool off in

At higher elevation, the underbrush became very dense. Since there were no trails, we put on our water shoes and waded uphill through mountains streams.

Hiking up the Innem River
Leptospirosis bacteria

Somewhere along our route, I got a small puncture wound on my shin from a thorn. What I didn’t know was that Kosrae’s streams contain Leptospirosis, carried in the urine of wild pigs and rats. It’s a water-borne bacteria found throughout the tropics. Leptospirosis can take up to 14 days to incubate in humans, and it’s not a disease that you recover from quickly or easily.

I showered when we returned home, and felt no ill effects from our hike. A week later, I travelled from Kosrae, to Honolulu, to Los Angeles, to Nashville and finally to a state park in Indiana where my cousin Don, my friend Ben and I rendezvoused to see the total solar eclipse on April 8.

Yours truly with cousin Don and friend Ben
Total solar eclipse seen from Riddle Point Park, Indiana

The skies where clear. The eclipse was awesome. It was well worth the long journey to witness this astronomical event and to share it with like-minded eclipse enthusiasts. From Indiana, I flew back to San Francisco to see more friends and family, and to give two travel talks. I still didn’t feel any ill effects from my Leptospirosis infection.

San Francisco with the Bay Bridge in the background
UCSF Medical Center

Thirty six hours after arriving in San Francisco, I suddenly felt awful. Weak all over, I could barely stand and my urine was orange. Unable to sleep because of intense leg pain, I went to the Emergency Room of UCSF Hospital at 5:00 am on April 11 — twelve days after my exposure to Leptospirosis.

I was lucky to be staying in San Francisco near one of California’s premier medical facilities. I don’t remember what happened after I checked into the Emergency Room at UCSF. I was later told that my kidneys, liver and lungs had stopped working, and that my heart and brain were going to fail next. Although the experts at UCSF rarely see a Leptospirosis infection, they knew what needed to be done to keep me alive. I was put into an induced coma, fed intravenously, and made to breathe with a tube down my throat.

My brother John, from Massachusetts, flanked by two of my attentive doctors

I woke up four days later surrounded by family, friends and doctors. Everyone looked very concerned. I was asked questions like “What’s your name? Do you know where you are? What day is it?” These questions weren’t easy to answer because I could barely move or talk. Furthermore, the medications I’d been given made me hallucinate, gave me strong déjà vu experiences, made me paranoid, and scrambled my memory. When I closed my eyes, I had disturbing out-of-the-body experiences in dark hellish places. I didn’t know if I was dead or alive.

Thanks to the love and support of friends and family, excellent medical care, and a determination to live, I survived. Since then, I’ve learned that an advanced case of Lepto — like the one I had — is usually fatal!

I spent the next month in hospital, starting in the ICU, and then moving gradually to less intense nursing care. Although a week of physical therapy restored my ability to walk, I knew I couldn’t completely recover inside a hospital. As soon as I had the strength to shuffle ten times around the nursing ward without a walker, I booked a ticket to Kosrae where my *real* physical therapy began.

About to land at beautiful Kosrae
Stella met my plane with a bouquet of wildflowers

When my plane landed, Stella was there to meet me. (Fortunately, she was never affected by Leptospirosis.) My island physical therapy started that afternoon with a short swim in the lagoon. After two weeks, my legs were strong again and I regained most of the 15 pounds I lost while in hospital.

Snorkeling in Kosrae’s lagoon
Very happy to be alive!!!

With hindsight, it was a miracle that I was in San Francisco when Leptospirosis hit me. One of the senior physicians monitoring my case told me that his initial assessment of my case was that I had a 20% chance of recovery — and that it would be a *partial* recovery at best in which I’d be on dialysis for many years. The medical director in Kosrae confirmed that Lepto is usually fatal in Kosrae because there are limited medical facilities for this disease and no dialysis machines. If it hadn’t been for my trip to Indiana for the eclipse, I would have died in Kosrae. I was, in effect, saved by the eclipse.

There are a lot of lessons to be learned from this experience. The main one — the lasting one for me — is that life can end at any time. So, live for today. Live life to the fullest. Don’t wait until tomorrow to do what you need to do today.

And this is why, a few days after my return to Kosrae, I asked Stella to marry me. She laughed and gave me the perfect reply: “WHY NOT!” Although I’d like to have married in the US with family and old friends present, it’ll be at least a year before Stella will have a visa to come to the US. (She’s been denied twice already.) So, taking my own advice, we were married at Kosrae’s Nautilus Resort on Monday evening June 3 — my birthday! — during a tropical downpour.

The audio of our wedding video isn’t perfect because of rain thundering on metal roofs over our heads. Be sure to check out the music playlist that Stella selected for our wedding reception.

Stella and I have started our honeymoon by flying to Manila. Since I won’t be teaching in Kosrae again until January 2025, we have several months to travel together. So, there will be more colorful adventures to share with you. Stay tuned!