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Ohio woman wakes up after being taken off ventilator, doctor calls her ‘a miracle’

GROVE CITY, OH (WCMH) – Two months ago, 75-year-old Eloise Barnette’s family were planning funeral arrangements.

“We set up the visitation, the funeral services,” said her daughter Beverly Dale.

Today, Barnette has defied medical odds and is going back home.

Her story began 12 weeks ago, when she was brought to Mount Carmel West hospital unresponsive, after her husband wasn’t able to wake her up in the morning.

“One organ after another started failing,” said Dale. “They’d fix one and something else would go wrong.”

Dr. Matt Wooten at Mount Carmel West said they ruled out a brain infection, stroke, even meningitis.

“We really didn’t know exactly what was going on,” said Dr. Wooten. “We had a lot of suspicions, but it wasn’t really anything definite.”

Barnette wasn’t getting any better, and her ventilator was taken out on Nov. 8.

“We stayed there and just waited for her to go,” said Dale.

But, she kept on breathing.

“We just kept praying,” said Dale. “She mouthed ‘I love you’ and I knew she was in there.”

After two days, Dr. Wooten came down to pallative care to see how Barnette was doing.

“When I went down there, she opened her eyes and started talking to me,” he said. “It really surprised me.”

Even Barnette said it was a miracle.

“They didn’t see any chance of me coming out of this and they thought it would be best to just let me go,” she said. “I have a lot of fight in me and it keeps me going.”

She eventually left the hospital for the Meadow Grove Transitional Care Center and didn’t make any progress for weeks, but suddenly she started to stand up.

“If it wasn’t for the therapy department, I don’t think I would have made it,” said Barnette. “No matter what happens to you, don’t give up hope.”

There’s still not an official diagnosis of what happened, but on Friday Barnette left rehab to go home in Mount Sterling.

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