“I had a cough one day and the next day I’m fighting for my life and I didn’t even understand it.”
— Ronny Pruitt
LAKE BUTLER — As Union County Higher School’s football coach and athletic director, Ronny Pruitt knows plenty regarding solid battles on the field.
But because March 24, in a hospital in Nassau, The Bahamas, Pruitt went through the toughest battle of his life.
“It makes you recognize that tomorrow is not a guarantee,” he said.
Seventy pounds lighter and spending 33 days in an induced coma, Pruitt plans to be there as soon as football practices open Aug. 1, on the sidelines as soon as the season starts Aug. 28 versus Hamilton County, and along with the group July 15 as soon as it goes to FCA camp in DeLand.
“The Lord has actually provided me the strength to grab me through exactly what I have actually gone through, and that’s not going to stop,” he said. “I simply have actually to listen to my physique and be smart.”
A few days prior to a spring break family journey to The Bahamas, Pruitt, 49, said his throat was hurting a little bit and he had a slight cough. He knew the flu bug had been going around. His wife, Robin, had simply battled through it herself a week earlier.
Pruitt’s group doctor called in a Z-Pak for him or her and the family gained the trip, arriving March 19.
“as soon as he got there, me and the youngsters had no clue it was this serious,” Robin Pruitt said. “He simply went downhill truly fast.
“I had the flu the week before. We believed he had specifically exactly what I had. We were doing our thing in the pool. He didn’t feel love joining us. We weren’t truly that concerned until that Wednesday night (March 23) as soon as he told me he was having issues breathing. I knew after that something was bad.”
With the assistance of a local resident that the Pruitts knew from previous trips, Ronny was taken to the private hospital in Nassau on the morning of March 24. Initially he was provided oxygen since his saturation degree was below 70, after that put on a ventilator.
Because he was still having trouble breathing, the hospital put Pruitt on the ECMO machine, a machine that provides cardiac and respiratory support to those whose heart and lungs are unable to give an adequate quantity of gas exchange to sustain life.
Pruitt remembers arriving at the hospital in Nassau, strolling in to the hospital and sitting on a gurney table. He doesn’t remember anything else regarding The Bahamas.
“That (ECMO machine) is something that is done surgically as well,” Robin Pruitt said. “A cardiologist has actually to do it. They didn’t believe he was going to make it in the next 24 hours.
“They believed he had pneumonia, that is exactly what they told us. I called my brother John, that lives in Gainesville, and he called some doctors he knew at Shands.”
By March 26, UF Good health Shands Hospital came in to Nassau and put Pruitt on a jet, still on the ECO machine, flying him or her spine to Gainesville along with Dr. Hassan Alnuaimat taking care of him or her en route.
“On Friday evening (March 25), the doctors at Shands conferred along with the doctors in The Bahamas and they told them they believed it was H1N1 (influenza) as opposed to a pneumonia thing,” Robin Pruitt said. “They brought him or her spine to Shands and at that point (March 26) they told us he was the sickest patient they had there for weeks. They couldn’t provide us a whole lot of chance since he was very, rather ill.”
Pruitt started creating blood clots in his legs, along with his right leg particularly swelling up promptly as a result of the influenza and the ECMO machine, which according to Dr. Stephen Smith of Shands is a common occurrence.
“The selections were to cut it open to relieve the stress or amputate it,” Pruitt said. “There were some clots in my left leg Yet they were small. They were able to sustain blood clots from going to my lungs and my brain.”
After a few weeks of showing some improvement, Robin Pruitt said her husband’s condition starting obtaining worse. along with his organs already shutting down, Ronny Pruitt started obtaining Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome.
“Your physique starts shutting down since you are so sick,” Robin Pruitt said. “His heart was good, thank God, through it all. It was strong. His liver, kidneys, lungs, every little thing else weren’t.
“They said if he had been a smoker or drinker, he would certainly have actually never ever gained it. Ronny weighed close to 300 pounds at the time, Yet in this case it was good. They said since he was a little over weight it helped him or her survive since he lost 70 pounds.”
With his condition continuing to deteriorate, a doctor at Shands told Robin Pruitt to call in the family since he may not make it through the night.
“every one of our family is there, and I looked about and saw this others doctor standing outside the room,” she said. “It was so surreal. He was simply standing out there, Yet I knew he was a doctor. So I went out there and of path I was rather emotional.
“I told him, ‘My husband, they don’t believe he is going to make it through the night, Yet he is truly strong. He is a fighter. Please do something for him.’ ”
That doctor — Martin Rosenthal — did do something. Within a few hours Pruitt was put in a RotoProne bed, which pads in a unclothed patient every one of the method about and turns over.
“exactly what they chance it does is motivate your organs to start working again,” Robin Pruitt said. “He did points to sustain him or her alive that night. He said, “our last chance is this bed, we haven’t used it numerous times. It could or could not work, Yet it can’t hurt.’ “
After 6 days on that RotoProne bed, Pruitt showed some improvement. Dr. Janeen Jordan additionally helped a lot, Robin Pruitt said.
“Those two doctors stand out in my mind,” she said. “I don’t believe he would certainly have actually gained it free of them.
“There were a great deal of wonderful doctors at Shands. It was simply a miracle.”
On April 25, the very first day of spring football practices, Pruitt woke up after 33 days in an induced coma. And despite the fact that he couldn’t talk, he pointed at the date in the room, learning the significance of it.
But waking up was much more so.
“as soon as I woke up, I believed maybe I had been in a auto wreck,” Ronny Pruitt said. “I didn’t know.
“It took me a little bit, love three days, I couldn’t talk. My daughter brought me a dry eraser board. I could hardly write. My handwriting was so bad, Yet they (his family) would certainly figure it out.
“I had a great deal of individuals praying for me. I had individuals I didn’t even understand from Arkansas, Virginia and Texas through connections through Facebook or our church. My dad has actually friends, that told others. Coaches from universities, love Florida, Liberty, FAMU, a great deal of coaches I have actually dealt along with came in.”
Smith, an acute care surgeon and emergency trauma, was one of 50 physicians at Shands that cared for Pruitt, along along with several nurses.
“He truly had terrific care at every one of levels,” Smith said of Pruitt. “Despite that his opportunities of dying from this were actually very high. This was a group approach. He is fortunate to survive.
“He is regarding as sick as you can easily be and still survive.”
Pruitt, showing considerable improvement, started rehabilitation at Shands on could 30 and returned house June 13. The complying with day, was the Pruitts’ anniversary, and the day after that (June 15) was Robin’s birthday.
“It was the most effective anniversary and birthday present I could have,” she said. “The doctors at Shands believe I probably gave it to him. It affects individuals differently. I got a flu shot, he didn’t. a great deal of individuals grab it that are not as sick as he was.
“I understand exactly how sick he was. He only knows by us telling him.”
While Pruitt went through a bodily battle that he is still working through — right leg still swollen from cuts gained in reducing blood clots — Robin went through an emotional rollercoaster. At two different hospitals she was told exactly how her husband most likely wasn’t going to make it.
And yet he pulled through, and plans to coach his Tigers in 2016.
“If you never ever gain one more game or a state championship, I believe God kept you here to tell your youngsters exactly what God can easily do,” Robin tells her husband. “And exactly what a miracle he did in saving you. I am not a deeply religious person. I believe in God totally. I am not in church every Sunday.
“I totally believe God saved Ronny so he could provide his testimony to these kids. a great deal of youngsters here should hear those type of things. I totally believe he kept him or her here to do that. any sort of of these doctors will certainly tell you, there is no others requirement that Ronny is alive. They never ever truly believed he would certainly walk from there.”
Pruitt credits his coaches along with maintaining Union County sports operating smoothly. He said surviving his disease has actually changed him.
The youth in Lake Butler are happy to see their coach spine on his feet.
“Family is the biggest thing for me,” Pruitt said. “Football-wise, I still have actually that same passion, Yet seeing a few of the youngsters and a few of the texts, I recognize why I got in to coaching is due to the kids.
“I have actually to be a smarter person. I can easily walk. My stamina is not exactly what it was, Yet it is enough to do exactly what I should do as a coach on Friday nights. It will certainly only grab better. I have actually come so far.”
— Contact Larry Savage at 352-374-5050 or larry.savage@gvillesun.com. And follow at Twitter.com/sunpreps
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