FORT MYERS BEACH, Fla. (WBBH) - “That is survival. Go searching right here. That is what survival is named,” Sue Martin stated.
If anybody is aware of the phrase survival, it’s her.
“That is tear-jerker,” she stated. Her quaint and quiet island group now resembles extra of a parking zone stuffed with destroyed trailers. This was the primary time she’s seen it since Hurricane Ian after spending 107 days within the hospital.
“I’m simply nice!” Martin stated. That’s quite a bit coming from somebody who practically misplaced their life on this storm.
After the water receded, she was caught inside underneath a mattress and different particles, barely respiratory and pale.
Or as she recollects it - “I used to be in deep (bleep).”
She may not be right here to inform the story if it weren’t for her good friend and neighbor, Melody King.
“The whole piece of no matter holds the ceiling up was on high of her. Once I moved her, she yelped loud and instructed me. ‘Don’t contact me!’ I stated, ‘Ms. Sue. It’s Melody.’ And her actual phrases had been. ‘My angel!’” King stated.
That angel, with the assistance of somebody in a pickup, made a makeshift ambulance dashing her to the emergency room.
“She’s simply an angel. Each time I want any individual, she’s there. She gave me a life. She gave me life again once more,” Martin stated.
However right here’s the place the story will get attention-grabbing. Whereas medical doctors had been tending to her accidents, they discovered one thing else, one thing alarming to her and her son Dean Martin.
“Nicely, with this traumatic expertise, they had been capable of finding out that they had an aneurysm of her aorta,” Dean Martin stated.
In the event you’re not a health care provider, consider it this fashion. The aorta is the principle artery to the center. If that aneurysm would’ve ruptured, she might’ve died.
However that’s not all. Imagine it or not, this witty 79-year-old additionally has dementia.
However in keeping with her son, “I actually assume this underlying downside obtained mounted by this tragedy.”
It’s a silver lining to this storm.
Nevertheless, it’s not all sunshine for Martin as it's for a lot of.
She has closed this chapter of her life within the Sunshine State.
On Saturday, she flew dwelling to be along with her sons in Indiana, abandoning her good friend.
“Yet one more farewell. ... However it’s not goodbye. ... As a result of I’ll see you in Seymour, Indiana, child,” King stated to Martin.