HADLEY — When the fall semester begins at Saint Anselm College, recently graduated Hopkins Academy senior Natalia Elson will be studying pediatric nursing, and soon after will start preparing to resume her ice hockey career as a collegiate athlete.
Less than five months ago, though, none of these future plans, or even being able to don a cap and gown and walk with her 32 classmates at last week’s graduation ceremony, were a certainty, as Elson was at Cooley Dickinson Hospital in Northampton, suffering from toxic shock syndrome as her internal organs began to fail.
It was so severe that on Jan. 18, while she was in the hospital’s ICU, her parents, Andrea and Gary, showed their emotions at possibly losing her.
“I was freaking out,” Elson said during a recent interview at her home. “My dad isn’t one to show emotion, and yet, that day, he bear-hugged me.”
And while her life has returned to normal after being laid up in a hospital bed, with a summer that she anticipates will be filled with both relaxation and work, Elson can now reflect on what was a harrowing experience.
“Wow, I actually almost died,” she said.
Elson traces the onset of her illness to two nights before her arrival at Cooley Dickinson, when she had friends over to her home to watch hockey.
“All of a sudden I started feeling really bad,” Elson said. Unwell, she went to bed and her friends left.
By Saturday morning, her fever was up to 102 degrees, her throat was sore and she didn’t want to get out of bed.
“My throat was killing me,” she recalls. “My muscles ached, everything hurt, and I had really bad headaches when I stood up.”
As her illness progressed, her skin began peeling, she developed rashes and her tongue turned white. The illness caused “insane” pain that felt like knives cutting into it.
Andrea Elson was quick to get in touch with the doctor’s office. They suggested the symptoms were not flu or COVID-19, and advised that a hospital visit might be necessary “if she spiked a fever of 105.”
Very early Sunday, when her temperature got to 104.9, they rushed her to the hospital.
“We were worried, but not thinking it was a dire situation,” Andrea Elson said. “We brought her to the ER.
“We got you there just in time.”
There, Natalia Elson was examined. Medical staff drew several vials of blood, and her blood pressure read 72 over 42 with a high heart rate. They also performed an MRI as part of the diagnosis.
Even as she went through all this, Natalia Elson said, “I knew it wasn’t the flu, I knew something was wrong, but it’s hard to explain when you can’t talk.”
Soon after, a sequence of IVs began pumping her with medications, but due to her high fever, these hook ups had to be frequently connected and disconnected. “The IVs had to keep being thrown out because I was so hot,” she said, adding that medical personnel would use ultrasound screens to find other veins in more places to insert the IVs.
“She became a medical mystery,” her mother said. “They were treating her with every antibiotic known to man.”
It was then that a nurse, wearing a serious expression, informed the family that toxic shock syndrome, or TSS, was the diagnosis. TSS is a rare but life-threatening complication of certain bacterial infections.
“Yes, that’s what we think, it is a serious infection and her organs are shutting down,” he told the parents.
“It would hurt when I was moving my leg, my muscles were breaking down,” Natalia Elson said. “My liver and kidney stopped working, and the bottom left part of my heart was starting to stop.”
Most painful was when the catheter was inserted, morphine administration began and some of the antibiotic fluids started entering her lungs.
Ultimately, despite the infection’s unknown origin, she began recovering and was able to text with friends.
“Your stats are going in the right direction,” Andrea Elson said.
Those improvements allowed friends and her hockey coach to visit. Even though hospital staff had been talking about moving her to Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston to consult with infectious disease experts, the local social interaction did her a world of good.
By Tuesday, she was moved to a stepdown unit where a constant parade of doctors and nurses checked on her welfare. “It felt unreal, it felt trapped and fatigued easily,” Natalia Elson said.
Friends brought posters and signs, and she soon got out of bed to take steps in the hallways.
Andrea Elson said upon discharge later in the week, it was almost like bringing a newborn home, as her daughter was getting a regimen of oral antibiotics for a time afterward. She also had to follow up with heart, liver and kidney specialists to check for any long-term ramifications, but all organs eventually returned to normal function.
Upon leaving, her favorite phlebotomist gave her a stuffed animal.
One song got stuck in her head: Prince’s “Purple Rain,” a song that now transports her back to that hospital room.
As she returned to school in February, she took on a lighter academic load and appreciated that her teachers were considerate. The only lingering effect, which she said lasted for about a month, was brain fog that made it hard to think straight. The school nurse also made sure she was not overdoing things.
Andrea Elson said this became a best case example of what would happen, acknowledging the doctors and nurses.
“They truly had her best interests at heart,” Andrea Elson said. “It feels like she really got top-notch care.”
“We feel like through all of this, you can’t take life for granted,” Andrea Elson said. “This helps prioritize what’s important for her. We’re super proud of her for being able to play hockey at Saint Anselm next year.”
“She’s here for a reason and our relationship is stronger now because we have more open lines of communication,” Andrea Elson said. “I tell her I love her a lot now.”
The illness changed her mindset, which was affected when she tore her ACL while playing for Hopkins’ girls soccer team. That injury cost Elson her senior year as part of the Pope Francis girls hockey team, causing her some depression due to the surgery and the extensive physical therapy needed to recover from that injury.
But now she is confident she will be able to lace up the skates and get back out on the rink.
She is also motivated more than ever to study nursing, which runs in the family, as her older sister, Emma, is studying to be a paramedic.
“This is something I definitely want to do,” Natalia Elson said.
She will also take inspiration from those who worked with her.
“I trusted them, and it feels like it all worked out,” she said.
