Back from the brink: Rare pain issue nearly cost Burdett her life
Everything they say about dying is true, says Krista Burdett.
“Yes, I saw the light. It's a real thing,” Burdett says. “Nothing happened other than I saw it. It was like picture frame, black at the bottom and a big circle of light in the top corner. A really bright light. Brighter than the sun.”
Burdett was dead for a little more than a minute, her body flushed with a potent cocktail of ketamine and lidocaine.
The mixture stopped her heart.
But it was a risk Burdett and her doctor at UPMC Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh, Charles Yang, were willing to take to stop Burdett's pain.
Debilitating, relentless, agonizing pain.
Despite the scare, Burdett and her doctor were undeterred.
“We went back and did it again,” Burdett said. “I'm not sure where my brain was at this point. We were desperate.”
The 25-year-old's brush with death was just one plot twist on a story arc of sadness, despair and, ultimately, triumph over a rare pain condition that molded her young life.
This is an excerpt, pick up Monday's Butler Eagle or subscribe online to read Krista's full story.
