On June 7th, Melanie Salo became unresponsive after lying down after she felt ill. Her family called 911 and was rushed to the hospital. On the way to the hospital her breathing took a plummet and upon arrival, the hospital ended up intubating & sedating her.

On Saturday morning they extubated her and after many hours, finally she woke up on her own. It was then discovered that she was unable to move her limbs and neck. After running multiple tests, they came up empty handed as to why. After research, the official diagnosis was determined to be Critical Illness Myopathy (CIM). In general, mild cases of CIP/CIM show improvement over weeks, while improvement in severe cases may take many months, if they develop at all. Long story short, Mel’s brain is not communicating with her muscles. She is bed ridden and cannot sit, eat and even roll over on her own.

The course of her journey has just begun. Melanie is now at a TCU (rehabilitation Center), after over a week in the hospital, with an extensive PT schedule. She is slowly regaining some motor functions but has a long recovery ahead. She is in good spirits and is hopeful working hard in PT will regain her mobility. She cannot work from either of her jobs and has little income for the bills that are piling up. Please help Mel and let’s get an Army behind her!