Fort Worth ISD counselor hopes to return to school after flu results in coma, kidney failure

One week after returning home from the hospital, the Rosemont Middle School counselor watched from her couch as her sister opened her pill bottles.

For even simple tasks, Lacette Green now relies on help.

But just a few months ago, she was thriving and providing guidance for her students until she contracted the flu.

"I only remember going to the nurse to get my temperature checked. That's the extent of what I remember of being sick,” she said.

On Dec. 9, after Lacette called her sister complaining of coughing all night and sounding out of breath, Shay Green called an ambulance.

By the time paramedics arrived, Lacette lost consciousness.

The 53-year-old was on a ventilator by the time her family arrived at the hospital.

"The first week, it was getting progressively worse. And every single day that I would go up there, they would show me her lungs. And her lungs every single day, they were getting more and more obscure,” said Shay Green.

Doctors told the family that Lacette had influenza A which led to pneumonia.

It quickly took down the diabetic, likely due to the immunosuppressants she takes for both kidney and pancreas transplants received years before.

“For a while, they were having trouble keeping my blood pressure and my heart rate up. And they had maxed out the medication that they could give you to do those things,” said Lacette.

“I remember after three or four days, they said, ‘We're going to run some tests and we're not going to assume anything, but you know, we have to think and consider all the options’,” said Shay. “And I'm going, this is a woman who has got two master's degrees, educated, bilingual, fluent. Like, do you mean she may not be the same mentally? Like, she may not be able to move. It was very scary.”

Still, the family remained hopeful and after nearly a month and a half in a coma, Lacette began to blink. Soon, she started turning her head and eventually, she was speaking, catching up on time lost.

“The first thing I really, really, really remember without it being fuzzy is that I asked my mom a question. I don't know what the question was, but she said, ‘Girl, it’s February the first.’ And I was like, what?” said Lacette.

Now back home, life is more difficult.

For the second time, doctors have told Lacette she needs a new kidney. Without a match in the family, she’ll have to join a waitlist for a new organ. Until then, she reports for dialysis three times a week.

Shay launched a GoFundMe to rally support for Lacette’s new medical costs and the mortgage and bills she still must cover.

Lacette said she remains focused on a return to her students.

"I would love to be able to finish out this year with my kids,” she said.

She acknowledged, getting back with May could be challenging, but it’s not the first obstacle she’s overcome.

"I just think about it and say, God's grace is very, very real and very profound because it looked hopeless and that's where he specializes in things that are hopeless,” said Lacette.