ST. LOUIS COUNTY, Mo. — One might see Ja'Ron Petty and Breanna Adams' family and think everything looks normal. But in June, the Florissant family's world was flipped upside down when Petty started having flu-like symptoms.
Adams, his girlfriend, had a sinking feeling it wasn't good.
"I had to take a cold shower to just cool off. I got so hot, I was sweating," Petty said.
"Right when he walked into the bathroom, he hit his arm on the wall. He didn't even make it in the bathroom and just fell back," Adams said.
Petty was rushed to the hospital on June 20, where he spent weeks, including eight days in the ICU.
At almost 37 weeks pregnant with two children, Adams said she feared she would lose the love of her life.
"I just remember I was saying 'No, no, no. We're about to have a son. Like, I can't do this without you. I can't do this without you,'" Adams said.
She spent countless hours at SSM Health DePaul Hospital.
Although Petty doesn't remember much because he was in a medically induced coma, he does remember what doctors told him before that.
"They were telling me I had certain things failing and I was pretty much dying at that point," Petty said.
Doctors diagnosed him with two diseases, endocarditis and pericarditis, and they said he likely developed heart conditions due to an infection in his bloodstream.
Endocarditis has an incidence rate of three to 10 cases in every 100,000 people, while 28 out of every 100,000 people are diagnosed with pericarditis each year, according to the National Organization for Rare Diseases.
One of Petty's doctors, Justin Grady, had this to say about Petty's condition.
"[(It) took a lot of different consultants, multidisciplinary approach for what was going on with him," Grady said. "Required a lot of sedation and ultimately, just a lot of care to get him through it".
On July 7, that's when everything changed. Grady and his team of doctors were able to improve Petty's condition and coordinate with Adams to reduce his sedation so he could be there for the birth of his son.
"Just to see him up and awake was like, I knew he was going to be OK. I knew God had this, I knew he was going to be all right," Adams said.
Erica Melrose, the medical director of obstetric hospitalists at SSM Health DePaul Hospital, said it was a team effort.
"Everybody had this sigh of relief. Knowing that they were both there in the room together," Melrose said.
Petty was discharged from the hospital on July 22 and the family said the near-death experience has them extremely thankful for each other. They want their children to know how hard they fought for each other during times of uncertainty, and they want people to know hearing their story to listen to your body.
"Seeing her (Breanna) do everything that she had to do while I was in ICU, it really made me think I got the right one. It reassured me. I know I got a good one," Petty said.
Their son, Adoness, is now 2 months old and doing well. The family said their two daughters are overjoyed about the new addition.
As for Dad, doctors said Petty will have to spend months on a strict medicine schedule to continue improving and slow down his pace before returning to work.
If you'd like to help the family with mounting medical bills, you can head to this GoFundMe.