He took care of me after I finally got discharged from the hospital after spending  about 4 mos. there, 95% of  them in ICU. Also we spent a month @ Emory University  Hospital Research Center. Thomas Ziegler, M.D. worked with me. 

I am 58 years young, and all of this happened to me 4 years ago this May. I had been  obstructed before, so I  knew when I became ill with the same symptoms again, what  was happening to me. I had previously had a  colonoscopy earlier in the year and had  pre-cancerous polyps removed. Also, I signed a pre-op-permit  stating  that my  intestine could be punctured. I think that was what happened to me. I'm no wimp, so  I hadn't  said  anything about the discomfort I felt every night when I would go to bed. Just a  vague ache in the belly. ( I  should have ), Anyway ,I really became nauseous with  heaving & vomiting most of the night. About 6:00 am I  finally woke my husband to  take me to hospital. The M.D. that had corrected previous obstruction did the surgery. I had turned, coughed deep breathed, and taken my walk down the hall and though I was ready to go  home. All of my family had left except my  daughter. 

All of a sudden the same thing starts all over again with the pain that became  unbearable. The last thing I  remember is asking my daughter to help me. 
All of the rest, I have no recollection ( my family told me later). 
I was rushed back to surgery and then found that all the poison from my colon had  dripped into the  peritoneum  (cavity of belly). All the surgery that he did had pulled  loose because the gut was rotten, so he  removed it all but 3ft. I was losing a tremendous amount of blood and they weren't getting me stabilized. 

They called my family in and told them to get the others there. That I wouldn't make it till morning. I was put on  life support.  My husband knew I didn't want to be kept alive by these measures. My son asked all the doctors  to pray with him, for his mothers life. And doctors; Catholics, Jewish Orthodox, Protestants & Muslims,  joined  hands and prayed for my life. When my Jim told them to pull the plug; he was  told I'd never breathe on my own.  

But here I am! 

Minus the jejunostomy, the central line and the TPN!  I had all those things for 2yrs.  And if that wasn't bad  enough!  Because the port-a-cath was infected when inserted,  I contacted E-Coli.