FORT MYERS BEACH, Fla. (WSVN) — A woman who was injured during Hurricane Ian was released from the hospital, months after the storm caused widespread devastation to Southwest Florida.
This woman was trapped under rubble for hours. Her family said it was in this tragedy, that she found a second chance at life.
“This is survival. Look around here. This is what survival is called,” Sue Martin said.
If anyone knows the word survival, it’s Martin.
“This is tear-jerker,” she said.
Her quaint and quiet island community now resembles more of a parking lot full of destroyed trailers. This was the first time she’s seen it since Hurricane Ian.
For the last 107 days, Martin had been nowhere but in the hospital.
“I’m just great,” she said.
That’s a lot coming from someone who nearly lost her life in this storm.
After the water receded, Martin was stuck inside, under a mattress and other debris, barely breathing and pale. Or as she recalls it:
“I was in deep expletive,” Martin said.
So deep she might not be here today to tell the tale if it weren’t for her friend and neighbor Melody Knight.
“The entire piece of whatever holds the ceiling up was on top of her,” Knight said. “When I moved her, she yelped loud and told me, ‘Don’t touch me.’ I said, ‘Ms. Sue, It’s Melody,’ and her exact words were, ‘My angel.'”
That angel, with the help of someone in a pickup truck, made a makeshift ambulance and rushed her to the ER.
“She’s just an angel,” Martin said. “Whenever I need somebody, she’s there. She gave me a life. She gave me life back again.”
But here’s where the story gets interesting.
While doctors were tending to her injuries, they found something else.
Something alarming to Martin and her son.
“Well, with this traumatic experience happening, they were able to find out they had an aneurysm of her aorta,” her son Dean Martin said.
If you’re not a doctor, think of it this way, the aorta is the main artery to the heart, kind of like Interstate 95 is the main traffic artery to South Florida..
If that aneurysm would’ve ruptured, Martin could’ve died.
It’s a silver lining to this storm.
Martin will now close this chapter of her life here in the Sunshine State.
On Saturday, she flew home to be with her sons in Indiana, leaving behind her friend and her angel.
“One more farewell, but it’s not goodbye because I’ll see you in Seymour, Indiana, baby,” Knight said. “Give me a kiss. I love you. I’m still your angel.”
Believe it or not, Martin also suffers from dementia.
Her son said since this tragedy, her symptoms have improved.
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