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Nurse Returns To Work At Hospital That Saved Her Life

(CBS) -- It was 10 years ago when doctors and nurses at Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn were able to save the life of a 16-year-old girl who came into the emergency room close to death.  And this afternoon, they were reunited.

"You were so sick.  You were so sick," emergency room doctor Ted Toerne said to the now 26-year-old woman.

WBBM Radio's Steve Miller reports, he and nurse Margie Barry-Sheerin were two members of the team who treated Michelle Bruno, who was 16 in 2006.

The lab determined she had a deadly, rare bacterial infection: meningococcemia.

"I think they called and said, 'We can see the bacteria growing in her blood.'  That's how bad it was."

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Toerne started antibiotics, then hooked her up to a ventilator.

"And I recall that she got 9 liters of fluid.  And this was probably in the space of 45 minutes.  That's two-and-a-half gallons of fluid," he said.

Bruno was in the hospital for two weeks.

"I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for you guys today," she said. "And I'm so grateful for everything that you've done."

Now Michelle is a nurse at the same hospital that saved her life.

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