A week before Christmas 2016, Colleen Cavallo was a healthy, productive, independent 59 year old woman. She’d religiously put 20,000 steps a day on her Fitbit.
That would all change in one fateful day.
Colleen would be rushed to the Emergency at Edward Hospital in Naperville. There doctors would work for 5 + hours trying to raise her blood pressure above 55. She’d end up in the ICU as what doctors told her husband Vito and her parents, she was the “sickest person in the hospital, make that, ALL the area hospitals”. She had sepsis (from an infected kidney stone). Placed in a medically induced coma, she would remain in that condition past Christmas, into 2017 and beyond the Presidential inauguration.
Doctors tried to prepare her family for the inevitable outcome, but her husband refused to accept the diagnosis and statistics they were quoting. He knew Colleen had been healthy and he knew she was a fighter. “Just treat this patient.” He demanded. And the many doctors (at least 10) and round the clock nurses (truly Angels on Earth) did just that. When her vitals started to improve, optimism took over.
Finally, she woke to a truly new world. The EEG proved no brain damage. The Doctors, the whole ICU staff, were overjoyed. She was the rare, (or latest) miracle they had performed.
That was the good news. There was bad too.
During her time in the coma, they gave her “pressers” that force blood into her heart, lungs and brain; essential to staying alive. Unfortunately, it draws the blood from her extremities. Colleen was transferred downtown to Northwestern Hospital where specialists surgically removed her hands and 5 days later, her lower legs and feet.
Her composure during that week of life changing surgeries was unprecedented. But it was the three plus months of hospitalization and rehabilitation that really stood out. She had to learn to swallow and eat again (her tongue had been severed during the ordeal), lost hearing in one ear and had to learn to live without limbs.
She vowed to walk out of the Shirley Ryan Ability Lab. And she did. The day they attached prosthetics to her legs, they asked her to try and take a couple of steps. She walked FIFTY FEET amazing everyone in view. They provided an electric wheelchair, but she refused to use it. (She donated it to a wounded veteran’s group). There were several more months of outpatient occupational therapy. She attacked it with a determination that inspired other patients (with lesser losses).
On her 60th birthday, her husband through her a party attended by over 200 friends, relatives, nurses and Imperial employees. They renewed their marriage vows and promised, that while life would be different, and difficult, they would not let what happened define them.
During the months Colleen and Vito weren’t in the office, the loyal staff at Imperial maintained status quo. No customers were affected by the ownership crisis.
As they told Vito, “ You take care of Colleen, and we’ll take care of the baby (Imperial)”. It is a testament to the dedication, commitment, and capability of the Imperial family. Today, Colleen is a prime example of what perseverance looks like. She is the CEO of the company her father created.
She is truly walking in her father’s footsteps. No wheelchair required.
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