
One day after Brittnee gave birth to her third child, Brayden, she learned that the flu she’d been fighting for weeks had developed into pneumonia. Her lungs collapsed and she became septic (a life-threatening emergency triggered by the body's extreme response to an infection).

Brittnee was emergency airlifted to UT Medical Center where she was immediately treated with extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO), a lifesaving treatment for seriously ill patients with lung and heart conditions. This technology had first come to UT Medical Center’s Heart Lung Vascular Institute in late 2020 with the help of a generous donor, Mrs. Avis Phillips in honor of her late husband Ted. The ECMO machine essentially does the work for the patient’s lungs and heart, giving time to heal.