Terry Traina, 58, arranged lunch Tuesday for the doctors, nurses, paramedics and others he considers heroes.
Traina felt ill at home in February, dialed 911, then collapsed. Paramedics found him unconscious and rushed him to Centegra Hospital, where he was diagnosed with a ruptured abdominal aneurysm. It's almost always fatal.
Traina suffered post-surgery heart attacks, strokes, and kidney failure, and was put into a drug-induced coma. Miraculously, he survived.
"Without you people in this room, l wouldn't be here. And I wouldn't have the opportunity to get to know my next grandchild that's coming. So the only words I have left are thank you," said Traina.
"He was on dialysis for several weeks. He was on a ventilator, had a tracheosontomy, a number of complications that took a while to overcome. And he got excellent care along the way," said Dr. Richard Lind, vascular surgeon.
When Traina, a loyal White Sox fan, learned some of his nurses wore Cubs-branded clothes, he brought them Sox versions.
