Northampton Community College rallies around staffer recovering from rare antibiotic reaction

Susan Schultheis, of North Whitehall Township, lost most of the skin on her body during her illness. Her coworkers responded with a fundraiser that brought in $22,500.

It started with a fever and a rash just after Labor Day.

Soon burn-like blisters covered Susan Schultheis' body as the top level of her skin died. Doctors decided to place the North Whitehall Township resident into a medically induced coma that would last for nearly two months as her body fought to recover.

Her husband, Joe Schultheis, thought his wife was just being put under momentarily so doctors could bandage her body. But he soon learned she had a 40 percent chance of survival and keeping her conscious would be too painful.

"It was shocking," he said.

Thus began the vigil for the popular Northampton Community College computer services department systems technician. Friends and family soon learned Susan Schultheis was having a rare reaction to an antibiotic called Stevens-Johnson syndrome. For Susan Schultheis it progressed to the worst possible form, known as toxic epidermal necrolysis or TEN.

Over 90 percent of Susan Schultheis' skin needed to heal but there was also major danger of organ failure and blindness, her husband said. Changing his wife's bandages took five hours every other day.

"The burn center at Lehigh Valley Hospital is ... " Susan Schultheis began to say.

"Unbelievable, amazing," Joe Schultheis finished. "She was lucky to be at this facility."

Joe Schultheis spent many hours at his wife's bedside and updated friends and family twice a day on her condition through the Caring Bridge website, which was eagerly followed by co-workers.

The couple credits their extensive support system for getting them through the crisis. Their neighbors John and Karen Pfeiffer, mowed the lawn, sent Thanksgiving dinner and picked their elder sons up from college.

"That's the only way I could handle it," Joe Schultheis said. "A lot of people took over."

As Susan Schultheis fought for her life in a coma, a group of her colleagues began organizing a tricky tray fundraiser, said Annette Savo, who works in the NCC finance office. Having a mission helped ease the helplessness everyone felt, she recalled.

"She's an amazing individual with a great sense of grace and strength and a great sense of humor," Savo said. "I felt sometimes when I was talking with her (after she woke up) she was lifting me."

Organizers set high standards for the items that attendees would be able to bid on by dropping tickets into canisters, Savo said. The second weekend of November, about 700 people came out and helped raise $22,500.

"It was an amazing two days," Savo said, adding organizers found themselves enriched. "It was probably one of the best experiences in my life."

Joe Schultheis continued working as a self-employed heating and air conditioning technician so he could support his wife and three sons. At the same time, the couple's 18-year-old son, Taylor, who was diagnosed with a brain tumor at age 7, was also having medical difficulties in New Hampshire where he lived.

Susan Schultheis remembers little of her time in the coma other than horrific nightmares. She knew little about why she was in the hospital or what was wrong.

Friends and family filled her in. Savo recalls she couldn't hold the phone the first time she called but she was ready for normalcy. Eventually, she transitioned to Good Shepherd Rehabilitation Network to learn to walk again and care for her skin.

Things seemed to be turning around but then on Nov. 6 her son, Taylor, died from a ruptured abscess.

"He was a sweet, sweet person," she said of her son.

Good Shepherd went out of its way to ensure Susan Schultheis could attend the funeral in a wheelchair, she said. She praised the rehab facility for its compassion.

She's now home and back at work at NCC, a place she praises for its caring.

"I'm really proud to be a part of it," she said.

And her colleagues are so happy to have her back.

"We're just all so thankful she is here and she is alive and she's healthy and she's well," Savo said.

Susan Schultheis' recovery is not over. Her skin is still healing. Her voice has gone from a soprano to a tenor after weeks of feeding tubes and a tracheotomy, so she's undergoing voice therapy. She hopes one day to be able to resume her exercise regimen, which included a lot of swimming.

Her co-workers and husband tease her, saying she came back looking 10 years younger.

"I don't think I would recommend going that route," Susan Schultheis said wryly.

And the couple is already focused on paying it forward.

"I've never experienced that kind of outpouring," Susan Schultheis said. "Good comes out of bad in some way."