Pulse

Summer 2015

Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/551105

Contents of this Issue

Navigation

Page 20 of 51

H E A RT B E AT S "I HAD NURSES COMING IN ON THE HOUR, WHICH WAS AMAZING. HAVING THAT AMOUNT OF SUPERVISION WAS COMFORTING BECAUSE I WAS SCARED— VERY SCARED." T orrance resident Alex Gray, 29, makes his living as a professional surfer, chasing the big waves. He's won many championships and has been on the cover of countless magazines since he started surfing at age 10, trying to keep up with his big brother. But an incident six years ago almost ended his surfing career and his life. In December 2008 Gray was surfing in Hawaii as part of the World Surfing League competitive series. He started having chest pains but ignored them because he was flying home for the Christmas holidays in a few days. Once he was home, the pain continued. "It went from me having pain in my chest to not being able to breathe to waking up in the middle of the night on my hands and knees, crying, basically thinking I was dying," recalls Gray. "At that point I had a 104º fever." However, rather than rushing to the hospital his family waited, thinking it was just gas or something equally benign. "We kept hoping it would get better, but it got catastrophically worse," says Gray. Finally on Christmas Eve, Gray was so sick his parents took him to Torrance Memorial Medical Center where X-rays revealed the entire le side of his chest was covered in a white cloud, which made it impossible for doctors to view any vital organs. Gray was admitted and diagnosed with pleurisy, an inflammation of the membrane surrounding the lungs and chest cavity. e pleural membrane is what allows the lungs to inflate and deflate without hitting the ribs or inner wall of the chest cavity. Doctors inserted two one-inch tubes into the lining of his chest. Over the next four days, they drained 1½ liters of the fluid that had made breathing so painful and had clouded the X-ray. Because pleurisy is typically found in older patients, Gray had many doctors examining him. "I was a living petri dish. I had infectious disease doctors coming every day to check on me," recalls Gray. "I had nurses coming in on the hour, which was amazing. Having that amount of supervision was comforting because I was scared—very scared. Whenever I would get a visit from one of the doctors and he had some answers, it added a little light at the end of the tunnel." Pleurisy is a secondary condition that can arise from a viral or bacterial infection. Doctors determined Gray had picked up a staph infection in Hawaii and began treatment immediately. Aer a week Gray was released, but he still had a long recovery ahead. "I went home but still had horrible shortness of breath from the scarring and trauma," he recalls. "I had no energ y. Every day, I would wake up, take a five-minute walk on my street and have to come back home to take a three-hour nap because I was so exhausted. My body had so much healing to do." Aer three months of recuperation, Gray prepared to return to competitive surfing only to learn his membership in the World Surfing League (WSL) had expired while he was hospitalized. Despite the extenuating circumstances, WSL officials stripped him of the status points he had earned in his four years of competitive surfing, forcing him to start over as a beginner. Consequently, Gray le the league and started chasing waves around the globe. He now earns more money and has more fame than he ever did before. "e pleurisy incident became the biggest blessing in disguise for me and my surfing career. It's funny that Mother Nature had to almost kill me to get me on a different path, but that's how life works," he muses. He quickly adds how thankful he is for the care he received. "I'm super grateful to Torrance Memorial," he says. "I'm convinced that hospital has the best doctors in the world, because I'm here today and doing just fine." PHOTOGRAPHED BY BRENT BROZA IN THE SOUTH BAY - MARCH 2, 2014 torrancememorial.org PULSE | 21

Articles in this issue

Links on this page

Archives of this issue

view archives of Pulse - Summer 2015