Against all odds: Jamey’s inspiring comeback after being paralyzed by Guillain-Barré syndrome

Life can change in an instant. That’s a truth Jamey Johnson knows all too well. One moment, she was happy, healthy, enjoying her career and life with her husband of 24 years. The next, she couldn’t get out of bed. Her left arm and leg were completely numb.

Jamey fell asleep in the ambulance on the way to the hospital that day. She woke up more than two months later to a diagnosis of a rare disorder called Guillain-Barré syndrome. She spent the next year relearning how to sit up, walk and do everyday tasks.

This is Jamey’s incredible story of faith, strength and never giving up on herself.

A mysterious illness

It all started with a headache on April 28, 2023. Jamey was used to getting migraines, but that day’s migraine was especially painful. Jamey realized as she got up to use the restroom that her left arm was numb. She shrugged it off, thinking she had slept wrong on her arm.

A little while later, she woke up and tried to stand—but couldn’t. Her whole left leg was now numb. She fell a few times and called for her husband, Robert, to help her get back in bed.

That’s when she knew something was really wrong, so Robert called an ambulance. After a quick stop at the local community hospital in Huntsville near their home, she was transferred to a larger hospital in Conroe.

Jamey remembers being in the ambulance, hearing the paramedics talking to her. She thought, “I’m really tired. I’m just going to go to sleep.” She fell asleep and didn’t wake up for weeks.

She was admitted to the hospital on a Friday. By the following Sunday, her husband’s birthday, she had stopped breathing on her own. A ventilator was keeping her alive as her doctors ran test after test, trying to figure out what was going on. Through it all, Robert never left her side.

One of her nurses suggested testing for Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS), a rare disorder that causes the body's immune system to attack the nervous system, leading to nerve damage, inflammation and symptoms like paralysis and muscle weakness.

Finally, they knew what they were dealing with—but Jamey still had a long road ahead of her.

The hospital wasn’t equipped to deal with the severity of Jamey’s illness, so she was transferred to Baylor Scott & White Medical Center – Temple, the same hospital where, in 2014, Jamey donated a kidney to her husband. At the end of May, she was transferred to Baylor Scott & White Continuing Care Hospital – Temple.

Jamey’s miraculous survival

Jamey’s memory of this time in a coma is fuzzy, but she remembers bits and pieces. She remembers the voice of the paramedic in the ambulance, calling her “sweetheart” and telling her it was going to be okay. She remembers the voices of the kind nurses named Cameron and Trey who welcomed her to the continuing care hospital. She remembers the presence of her husband, who never wanted to leave her side. She remembers the voice of her pastor’s wife singing songs over her.

One day in June, after a CT scan revealed blood clots in both lungs, Jamey went into cardiac arrest. She survived thanks to the persistence of two nurses named Anthony and Kevin who performed CPR for a full 45 minutes. During that time, her heart stopped beating three times.

Doctors prepared her husband for the worst, telling him that someone who receives CPR for 45 minutes is not likely to make it. If she did make it, she probably wouldn’t be the same Jamey he knew. Robert believed and prayed that she would make it.

Miraculously, she survived. Even more miraculously, she survived with no evidence of brain damage and not a single broken rib.

After surgery to break up the clots, Jamey woke up—and this part she remembers well. Her husband was hovering over her bed, holding her hand, his eyes big and worried. As a retired Marine, this worried look wasn’t normal for him.

Jamey was confused. She thought she had simply taken a nap. She had no idea what had happened or what she had been through.

“I truly believe God did this for me,” she said of her miraculous survival. “There’s no other explanation.”

The road to recovery

Then Jamey’s long road to recovery began. Her muscles were so weak that she couldn’t do anything for herself, even sit up or hold a pen. She was also still experiencing numbness in her arms and legs.

She remembers the feeling of waking up and realizing she couldn’t move. Mentally, she couldn’t quite process what had happened to her.

“Scary doesn’t even begin to describe it,” she said. “Everything felt very heavy.”

Still on a ventilator and with a tracheostomy tube to help her breathe, Jamey couldn’t speak. She communicated with her husband and care team by whispering and blinking her eyes.

Slowly, Jamey learned how to sit in a recliner, then a firmer recliner, and eventually a wheelchair once she could hold herself up. Her husband wheeled her outside, and she got her first glimpse of the outside world in months. She remembers thinking for once, how wonderful the Texas heat felt.

Her days were full of physical therapy and occupational therapy. She worked on being able to move her legs and lift them off the bed, how to grab things and make a fist. She had to wear braces on her hands because her wrists were so weak.

Before she left the continuing care hospital for inpatient therapy at Baylor Scott & White Rehabilitation Center – Waco, she could stand for 5-8 seconds at a time, had graduated from a feeding tube to a liquid diet and could breathe without a ventilator. She was slowly making progress! Every small victory fueled Jamey’s strength and determination to just keep going and keep getting stronger.

In Waco, she started learning how to walk again, spending four hours a day in physical therapy. Practicing an exercise called “sit to stands,” she built strength in her legs and core.

“It was exhausting but very exciting,” Jamey said. “Because I was starting to gain some strength and trying to become more independent. I had lost my independence this entire time.”

Her therapists were tough, but their toughness and Jamey’s persistence paid off. By the time she left, she was able to walk short distances with a walker.

In September, Jamey finally went home. With a tracheostomy tube, she still couldn’t speak, and she still needed a wheelchair to get around at times. But she was so glad to be home.

Getting back to normal life

Over the next several months, she continued with outpatient physical and occupation therapy to keep gaining strength and mobility. In November, she had her tracheostomy tube removed, meaning she could finally use her voice again.

“I just started rambling and talking all the way home,” she said. “It was so exciting to be able to use my voice and talk again.”

Rebuilding her strength was no easy task, and it’s taken a lot of time and hard work. Jamey is grateful for the therapists who helped her take it one baby step at a time, working with 1lb weights at first and slowly but surely progressing over time.

In October, she hit a big milestone—she could walk by herself!

In December, she and her husband went out to a restaurant for the first time in eight months. Jamey said Mexican food has never tasted better.

Jamey continued to make progress with physical and occupational therapy. Every day was challenging and exhausting, but she learned to celebrate all the little milestones and just keep pushing forward.

When she went back to work in January, her coworkers threw her a welcome-back party. Jamey loves her job as the Director of Secondary Teaching and Learning at Huntsville Independent School District and was thrilled to get back to her “normal” life.

She finished occupational therapy in April with all her motions back to a normal level and hopes to finish physical therapy by the end of the year. Jamey still has some issues with her left foot, walking and the occasional coughing and wheezing left over from her tracheostomy tube. But overall, she’s healthy and just grateful to be alive.

“It’s been an amazing journey,” she said. “But I still have a long way to go.”

Jamey is so thankful for her husband’s unwavering support and love. Through her long and difficult hospital stay, to physical therapy and adjusting to life back at home, Robert has been her rock.

“He’s never given up on me and continues to care for me whenever I need him,” she said.

Jamey is also grateful for everyone who has played a part in her journey. She remembers the names of every nurse, doctor and therapist who has cared for her—and said she’ll never forget what they did for her.

“There is no way I could have done all this without all those people along the way to help me, to tell me don’t give up, you can do this, not today, you may be tired but let’s go,” she said. “They were always pushing me to do things I didn’t always believe that I could do. I consider them my friends now. They’re amazing.”

It would have been easy for Jamey to give up at so many points along the way when things got tough. She said she relied on her care team, her husband and her faith to keep her going. She knows God carried her through, sustaining her faith and her strength every step of the way.

“I can’t thank the Lord enough,” she said. “I told Him I would tell anybody that would listen to me about my story.”

To anyone going through challenges, Jamey’s message is this: you can do hard things. Always believe in yourself and keep pushing forward.

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