For 37-year-old Dana Smith of Hollis, Queens, a spontaneous decision to get a ring during a last Thanksgiving shopping trip led to a medical emergency that nearly took her life.
Just days later, Smith, who works as a corporate payroll manager for Northwell, noticed that he was not feeling well.
The busy mother of a teenager put him on acid reflux and the stress of the upcoming Christmas holidays, but as the days turned into weeks, he could no longer tolerate food or water.
“I just drank water, I couldn’t hold it down,” she said. “I think at some point I started bleeding.”
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Finally, on January 12, she asked her sister to bring her to the Long Island Jewish Medical Center. At this moment, she was so ill that she could no longer remember the events that followed.
She remembers an ultrasound at the hospital, then wakes up with her doctors telling her she has a new liver.
“That one decision saved my life,” Smith said. “It’s very overwhelming. Emotional, everything, mental.”
Tests showed that Smith was suffering from fulminant hepatitis B, a very rare condition in which the patient is sent to immediate liver failure.
Smith was then taken to North Shore University Hospital, where she was cared for by Dr. Lewis Teperman, director of Transplant Services at Northwell.
The swelling of the brain resulting from hepatitis B caused convulsions, so it was decided that Smith should be placed in a medically induced coma.
She was immediately placed on the transplant list and a match was discovered in 48 hours, which allowed her to undergo transplant surgery on January 17.
He was able to return home on January 26.
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The mystery of what caused the otherwise healthy young woman to become so seriously ill was solved when doctors removed Smith’s mask to uncover the small pocket ring.
Eliminating all other variables, the medical team determined that the disease was an infection in that nose ring that led to fulminant hepatitis B and, more importantly, waited too long to seek medical attention.
“This was the only change that took place in her life, this nose ring,” said Dr. Teperman. “And it’s the perfect time to incubate the virus.”
Smith, who has not yet returned to work, wants to share his story in hopes of encouraging people to monitor their health closely and not avoid coming to the hospital for fear of COVID-19.
If she had waited another day or two to visit the emergency room, her story could have ended much differently.
Smith, who regularly schedules meetings with Dr. Teperman every 10 days, says she’s not sure what to tell her daughter if the talk of a nose ring should come in the future.
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