ST. LOUIS - Eleven years ago, a ruptured brain aneurysm nearly killed Jacquie Crawford. A pulmonary embolism, a lung disorder, shortly after brain surgery added to her health issues.
Years later, she survived a heart blockage, atrial fibrilation, that forced her into more months of rehab. Then both of her knees had to be replaced.
In the midst of all of that, she managed to take a trip with a dogsled team across the frozen Bering Sea in northern Alaska, become an on-call chaplain with St. Louis University and St. Alexius hospitals, train dogs and become a tap dancer.
"I believe there is a seed of equivalent benefit in every adversity," Crawford said. "I will not stop looking for this benefit for myself and for others.
"This gives me a positive outlook on everything that happens, keeps me positive and gives me hope."
Crawford's saga began in January 1999, with a headache that became so bad she had to pull off of the highway and call an ambulance. She was barely able to speak or move by the time it arrived.
At Barnes-Jewish Hospital, her tests showed blood had spilled onto her brain from a ruptured weak spot in a vessel.
Her priest prayed, friends visited to pray, cry and hope. From around her she heard the whispers from medical people about her bleak outlook, maybe a 1 percent chance of survival, that she shouldn't even be alive.
When she could speak, she told children and relatives that she was at peace with whatever happened. "I will be waiting for you all in heaven."
Then came the visit from a close friend she will only identify as Michael.
"There was the sound of all the pumps in the room and he walked in, and all the sound was gone. The room was just white," she said. "And Michael looked at me and didn't crack a smile."
After some words about her spirit and divine power, he told her that she was not going to die.
"He said it three times. And I blinked my eyes to say that I understood. And he was gone," she said. "I knew I was going to live."
Medical science has made strides in preventing death and disability from ruptured aneurysms, said Dr. Ralph Dacey, chief of neurosurgery at Barnes Jewish Hospital and Washington University School of Medicine and Crawford's neurosurgeon.
"People can make surprisingly good recoveries from ruptured intracranial aneurysms," he said.
Still, Crawford helped her own plight.
"The patient's positive attitude has a lot to do with recovering from any type of major neurological illness," Dacey said.
While hospitalized, she developed a lung disorder, likely brought on by the therapy used to quell the effects of the aneurysm.
The conditions led to weeks of rehabilitation; she lived for a time with a daughter.
Jump to her returning home. With the new life, she stepped up her activities: working as a chaplain; increasing support and visits to single mothers in Guatemala and Mexico. She also went to Mississippi to help people there deal with poverty and abandonment.
She continued training and fostering long-haired Chihuahuas.
In 2003, she was watching a movie, "Sled Dogs," with Cuba Gooding Jr. The film reawakened a dream from her childhood in Minnesota. She booked a six-day dogsled trip across northern Alaska known for its minus-60-degree wind chills, and desolation.
She still finds it amazing, even prophetic, that on Jan. 9, 2004, five years to the day of her stroke, she was on a frozen Bering Sea approaching the end of her trip - on St. Michael's Island.
In 2006 she had another challenge; her heart began to fail. Doctors used a new form of surgery to fix it. After more weeks of rehabilitation she accelerated back to full speed - until her knees began to fail, the result of a 30-year-old injury.
Two surgeries months apart replaced both her knees in time for her to tap dance in the St. Louis Senior Olympics.
"God is going to see me through no matter what else happens," she said. "Just the fact that I'm going to continue trying until I can't do it anymore.
"I don't do it alone. I get by with a little help from my family and friends and a lot of help from my God who either clears the way for me or gives me the strength to trudge through it."
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(c) 2010, St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Distributed by Mclatchy-Tribune News Service.