“It was the most terrifying moment of my life. The most terrifying moment of my life to think I was going to lose my daughter,” her mother Shannon recalled.

A month after her coma, she is finally out of it. Katie Sullivan said about her ordeal, “I’m proof that miracles happen. My mom always tells me I’m a miracle because the doctors told her I probably wasn’t going to make it.” She went on to say, “I almost lost my life. I’m happy to be here,” she said.

The reason for the teenager’s condition was something incredibly common; a urinary tract infection (UTI)! The UTI went untreated and led to devastating consequences.

The teenager had been complaining of just one symptom: back pain. She had been complaining about the back pain for a month which her both she and her family associated the pain with her rigorous training to play softball and gymnastics.

She was celebrating Chirstmas with her family and then suddenly just a few days later, she was life-flighted to Allegheny General Hospital for extremely low blood pressure and high heartbeat.

At the hospital, she was diagnosed with a UTI and doctors informed her parents that is was critical.

Things looked bleak but then she started recovering. Her mother shared a few weeks ago about her daughter’s recovery, “For the first time today, I asked her if she wanted to go home, and she shook her head yes. Then they asked her if she was in pain, and she shook her head no. I told her if she wanted to go home she had to put a thumbs up, and she did. From not moving on Sunday, and telling us hour by hour, today is miraculous.”