Shelby’s Crose called ‘miracle patient’ after aneurysm recovery

SHELBY — Jerry Crose said he is “terrified” of planes.

So when he needed life-flighted to OhioHealth Riverside Methodist Hospital, his wife Tiffany asked the nurses to medicate him.

“Whatever it was, it worked — I was joking around with the nurses and I don’t remember much after that,” Crose said.

A Shelby native, Crose suffered an aneurysm in December 2019 and went to the Shelby emergency room after a “sharp, shooting pain” in his chest.

“It actually started at work, I was cleaning a car and got a pain inside my chest,” he said. “I was pouring down sweat, but after five or maybe 10 minutes, the pain was going away.

“So I kept working.”

Crose, who worked at a detailing shop in Rocket Chevrolet, went home early that day because he didn’t feel well.

“As soon as I laid down — probably about two hours from when it first started — that pain came straight back,” he said. “I called my wife and she said you need to go to the hospital.”

A friend drove Crose to the hospital while Tiffany came home from work and packed a bag. Jerry said a nurse conducted a CT scan and vitals checks, and set up IV fluids.

“Before I knew it, the nurse said I had an aneurysm, and that there was a helicopter coming to take me to Columbus,” he said. “Once I got there, they knocked me out for surgery and I was in a coma for 10 days.”

Crose experienced significant blood loss during surgery and had three strokes, causing a 10-day-long coma.

“My whole family was praying for me, so that tells me something about where I am now,” he said.

Crose overcomes coma, paralyzation

Crose was at the Riverside Methodist Hospital in Columbus for about two weeks.

While he was in a coma, Tiffany would play his favorite types of music — rock and heavy metal, read books and hold Jerry’s hand.

“I had actually slept in the family waiting room for those days and the cardiac ICU nurses brought me a chair to sleep in when I was in his room,” she said.

Jerry Crose remembers coming out of his coma well.

“On the 10th day of my coma, the doctors told my wife that if I didn’t come out of it, they’d have to put a tube down my throat,” he said.

“I don’t know if my subconscious heard that, but not that much longer, I woke up.”

Crose recalled being thirsty when he woke up and only being allowed to drink water.

“I couldn’t see two feet in front of me — everything was blurry,” he said. “But my wife had some Cherry Cokes across the room and I asked ‘Why don’t you give me one of those Cherry Cokes over there?’ I couldn’t see the TV, so I don’t know how I made that out.”

I think he’s happier now than before the aneurysm. He sees this as a second chance to live and wants to make other people’s lives better.

Tiffany Crose

Crose was paralyzed on his left side and had severe bed sores when he woke up. He asked his doctors in Columbus if he could go back to OhioHealth Shelby Hospital to start rehabilitation. The doctors agreed, and he spent about two weeks in physical therapy at the Shelby hospital.

“To me, that’s what started my healing process,” he said. “The staff here works in good, close contact with you. 

“It’s too big in Columbus that I didn’t get that specialized attention like I did here. Shelby and Mansfield made me feel like I was wanted and cared for. When they treat you like that, it makes a difference.” 

Crose needed to spend two months at OhioHealth Mansfield for their neurology care and inpatient rehabilitation. 

“By the time I got to Mansfield, I could see the TV and things farther away in the room, so I could tell that was better,” he said. “My brain healed better than expected I guess because my skills and motor functions on my left side came back with therapy.”

Crose said some doctors told him he likely wouldn’t walk again.

“Some of them called me a miracle patient,” he said. “A couple months after I got out, there was a physical therapist who worked with me who saw me walking into physical therapy. He joked ‘I thought I’d seen a ghost.’ ”

Crose was in a wheelchair when he was able to leave the hospital and asked the hospital attendant if he could walk to the car.

“I walked into the hospital and it would make me feel better if I could walk out,” he said. “So I did. 

“I was ecstatic when I could start using a cane instead of a walker. Now, I only need the cane if I’m outside or walking for a while.”

Crose credits Shelby, Mansfield hospital staff with his recovery

Physical therapists also worked with Crose in his home. He was able to come back home around the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, so Tiffany learned how to give him IV insertions on her own.

“He was on a very strong IV antibiotic when his bed sores were healing,” she said. “The nurses showed me how to do it. I would hook the line up to the IV port and do that twice a day.”

Crose was visiting the Shelby in Mansfield hospitals regularly for physical therapy for two or three years following his aneurysm.

“There were definitely days where I didn’t want to go,” he said. “But I had people who said ‘that’s not how you get better. You can’t sit around and feel sorry for yourself.’”

Though Crose has made an overwhelming physical recovery in the past four years, Tiffany also made a note of his mental progress.

“Mentally, it’s been the biggest change,” she said. “I think he’s happier now than before the aneurysm. He sees this as a second chance to live and wants to make other people’s lives better.”

Jerry agreed. 

“I had to make the decision to say this is the first day of my new life and I want to get better,” he said. “It was hard, but I’m walking again, and I didn’t do it all alone. It took many people inside and outside this hospital who cared enough to work with me.”