What happens after you survive something that was supposed to kill you?

In this episode of 13 Days of Silence: Living in the After, Teri Busse sits down with author, patient advocate, speaker, and septic shock survivor Christina A. Cole.

After a medical crisis led to sepsis and septic shock, Christina’s life changed dramatically. She survived cardiac arrest, multiple organ failure, months of hospitalization, numerous surgeries, amputations, and an exhausting road through rehabilitation and recovery.

But surviving the emergency was only the beginning.

Christina talks candidly about the part of survival people don’t always see: grief for the body and life you had before, medical trauma, disability, rehabilitation, motherhood, learning to navigate a complicated healthcare system, and rebuilding an identity after everything changes.

Her experience became the foundation for her memoir, Through the Ashes, a story of catastrophic illness, resilience, family, grief, healing, and finding purpose after survival.

This conversation goes beyond the medical crisis and into what comes afterward: recovery, advocacy, rebuilding, and learning how to live inside a life you never expected to have.

Connect with Christina A. Cole

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/christinacole-author
Instagram: @chris_ck17
Facebook: facebook.com/ChristinaAColeAuthor
Website: Christinaacole.com

13 Days of Silence: Living in the After explores what happens after the moment that divides your life into before and after — and how people learn to live inside everything that comes next.