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ON JANUARY 1, 2013, Rikke
Schmidt Kjaergaard, then a 38-year-
old Danish scientist, was celebrating
the new year with her family
when she came down with a fever.
Over the next 12 hours, she became
progressively sicker, and the
following morning her heart stopped.
Paramedics were able to make it
beat again, but her other organs were
failing, too. A bacterial infection
was ravaging her body, and because
of a chronic immune disorder
she’d been diagnosed with in her20s, her spleen had withered
and calcified and wasn’t able to fight
it. After she went into septic
shock, a nurse told Rikke’s husband,
Peter, that he should think about
turning off the ventilator keeping
his wife alive.
But Peter didn’t give up, and
neither did Rikke. One morning,
after 12 days in a coma, she surfaced
enough to hear Peter’s voice
describing the snow outside. She
had no idea where she was or what
was happening. Her eyes wouldn’tThe COMEBACK
After a sudden, mysterious, and near-fatal
illness, Rikke Schmidt Kjaergaard feared she’d
live out the rest of her days completely
paralyzed and mute. Nearly seven years later,
she’s able to talk to SUSANNAH MEADOWS
about her journey back.74 SEPTEMBER^2019 OPRAHMAG.COM
SCHMID
T^ KJA
ERGAARD:
KATRIN
E^ PHILIP.