It was the worst earache George Garvin had ever experienced.
The 72-year-old Westchester man was preparing to head with his family to their second home in Florida in early January when he asked his wife, Martha, to run to the pharmacy for ear medicine. Garvin took the medicine and felt some relief at first, but then his condition worsened.
He went to bed complaining of vertigo and woke up at 1 a.m. feeling even worse. In addition to the earache, he now had a backache and stomachache. About 90 minutes later, he was in the emergency room at Adventist Hinsdale Hospital. Not long after that, he lost consciousness. During a CAT scan doctors noticed air in Garvin’s brain.
Garvin then underwent an MRI and a spinal tap and was placed on a respirator. Dr. Richard Wiet, a neuro-otologist who treated Garvin at Adventist Hinsdale Hospital, conducted an emergency myringotomy – an ear incision – to relieve the pressure that was building and take a bacterial culture. The fluid he drained was sent to the microbiology laboratory and later, a blood culture identified bacteria in the fluid that caused meningitis.
During surgery, Wiet discovered spinal fluid in Garvin’s ear. His condition was caused by a bacterial infection that worsened over several days and became a raging infection, penetrating from his ear mastoid/temporal bone toward his brain. Dr. Edward Sherman, the infectious diseases specialist who treated Garvin, called Garvin’s case a very unusual occurrence of a very common problem – an ear and sinus infection. He was in a coma for eight days. During that time, his wife and five adult children gathered around his hospital bed, praying, singing hymns and reading Scripture aloud. Their prayers were answered when Garvin regained consciousness. Martha Garvin recalls the moment with a smile.
“When he began to come to just a little bit, I said, ‘George, I love you,’” Martha Garvin said. “And a tear trickled down his cheek.”
The odds were stacked against Garvin; a 40 to 60 percent mortality rate is associated with cases such as his, Wiet said. But he has since fully recovered. He spent three weeks undergoing inpatient rehabilitation – including physical, occupational and speech therapy – under the care of Dr. Robert Eilers, a physical medicine and rehabilitation specialist.
“Because the rehab unit is based right here in the hospital, Mr. Garvin was able to receive his entire continuum of care under one roof,” Eilers said. “He could continue to be seen by his treating physicians instead of being transported back and forth between facilities, which can be quite disruptive for patients and their families.”
The Garvins praised their doctors, who worked as a team to care for Garvin.
“They call him the miracle man. All the doctors and nurses – they were all just amazed he came through this,” Martha Garvin said of her husband. “It’s quite a story."