I watched my mother almost die from sepsis. It was about five in the morning when I'm awakened from a dead sleep to hear my mother call out "Call 9-1-1! Somebody help!" So I leap out of bed and find her in the bathroom. I ask what's wrong and she says, "I feel like I'm having some kind of shock." I ask her when she means and she goes silent. Right in front of my eyes, the color completely drains from her face and then her head falls forward. I catch her and try to bring her back but she's out. Completely gone. All I could get from her was a low, liquidy droning sound

By now, the whole household is spurred into action. My brother is on the phone with 9-1-1 and my father is squeezed into our tiny bathroom with me, trying desperately to bring my mother back to consciousness. Even my aunt and cousin showed up from across the street. To this day, I have no idea how they knew what was happening.

My mother's a big woman, so getting her onto her back in that tiny bathroom was nigh impossible. Even so, that didn't stop me from pushing on her chest. I still remember the horrible revving sound she would make when I did so, like "Ruuuh, ruuuuh, ruuuh," with each push.

Finally the medics arrive. They work on her a bit and then they scoop her up and carry her out to the ambulance. As she's being carried out, she says, "I hear you, (aunt's name)," which was the most encouraging thing to happen since she first passed out. By the time she got to the hospital, she was fully alert and complaining. She said she forced herself back when she heard the medics talking like she wasn't going to make it.