The World

You’re Tougher Than You Know

You’ll find out when bad times come

Photo by on

When my daughter was a sophomore in college, she passed out while cooking and landed on the stove. Three burners were going at the time.

We didn’t know it then, but it turns out she has something called vasovagal syncope — which in her case means she can pass out when she’s too tired, hungry and stressed, as she was that night. It was close to midnight during finals week and she was stressed and studying so hard she hadn’t eaten all day.

The last thing she remembered was feeling faint.

She extended her arm and placed her hand against the wall behind the stove to balance herself, so she was leaning toward the stove when she lost consciousness.

Fortunately, her friends quickly pulled her off the stove and called for an ambulance.

She spent a week in the intensive care burn unit and received extensive skin grafts, and for a year she had to wear pressure garments. Most visible was the hot pink “sleeve” she wore over her burned arm.

Her pressure garment caught people’s attention and many people asked to see the scar.

At first, my daughter obliged them.