Woman Survives Killer Blood Clots; Recovery Baffles Doctors

Sept. 15, 2008— -- Late last year, Marianne Cook, a 32-year-old single mother of two from Arnett, W.Va., wasn't feeling well and decided to take a hot bath. As she climbed into the tub, she suddenly felt dizzy and fell. The water continued to run as Marianne blacked out. She could hear her 2-year-old crying and calling for her, but she couldn't move.

Twenty hours later, a maintenance man received a complaint that water was leaking from an upstairs apartment, Marianne's apartment. He opened the door and found the bathroom flooded, Marianne unconscious on the floor and her 2-year-old son sitting in the water crying next to his mother. And so began the heroic efforts to save Marianne's life.

Still unconscious, she was taken to a nearby hospital and placed on life support. Emergency physicians repeatedly asked Marianne's parents to sign a "Do Not Resuscitate" order.

"She is brain dead," doctors told Marianne's mother, Wilma. Her brain is "like cottage cheese and if she ever does awake she will be a vegetable," Wilma Cook remembers them saying.

Within a few hours, Marianne was airlifted to a teaching hospital in Huntington, W.Va. Tests revealed the source of the problem: A tumor inside her heart had broken apart, causing clots throughout her body and triggering a massive stroke. Doctors knew the extent of the problem but also knew they were not equipped to fix it.

Marianne's parents did not give up. Ten other hospitals were contacted, and each refused to take the case, saying it was too risky. But on Dec. 1, three days after the collapse, with Marianne still unconscious and deteriorating, a medical center agreed to take her.

Marianne was airlifted to the Cleveland Clinic, where some of the country's leading cardiologists now admit they believed her chances were slim at best.

Emergency cardiothoracic surgeons were called in to remove the tumor in her heart in a three-hour operation. That was a start. Now they had to contend with the blood clots.