Having already fought through six rounds of chemotherapy after being diagnosed with breast cancer in September 2025, Lindsey Wiley found herself fighting for her life earlier this year.
Thanks to the lifesaving care she received at INTEGRIS Health in January, Wiley is back to normal and enjoying time with her family just three months later. “I am beyond blessed to experience life and keep going,” Wiley said.
Having already fought through six rounds of chemotherapy after being diagnosed with breast cancer in September 2025, Lindsey Wiley found herself fighting for her life earlier this year.
Thanks to the lifesaving care she received at INTEGRIS Health in January, Wiley is back to normal and enjoying time with her family just three months later. “I am beyond blessed to experience life and keep going,” Wiley said.
Home Run for Life
The Oklahoma City native will be recognized Saturday, April 25 as the impactful INTEGRIS Health “Home Run for Life” series returns to Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark for a 15th consecutive season. The series celebrates Oklahomans who have overcome significant health challenges and provides a symbolic end to their adversity with a home run “lap” around the bases during an in-game ceremony.
Cancer Was Just the Beginning
Wiley, 43, had completed her final round of chemotherapy Jan. 8, and was looking forward to returning to normalcy for herself and her two children. “I was so excited finishing chemo,” Wiley said. “I was working the whole time and didn’t let it stop me. I have two children aged nine and 11 and I didn’t want this to affect them. They’re young. They’ll understand later what I’m going through but just didn’t want that to change their lives as much as it did.”
After finishing chemotherapy that Thursday, Wiley woke up the next day feeling different. She and her husband reasoned that it was due to the symptoms of the final round of treatment. Wiley rested on Saturday, but as the following day began, she began to have trouble navigating through her house. “Sunday, I woke up and…I was walking from my room to the living room, and I fell,” Wiley said. “I recall falling five times. I even skinned my knee in my house. I knew right there it was more serious than sleeping it off.”
Wiley retrieved her phone from her daughter, calling her husband who was at baseball practice with their son. Together, the pair rushed to INTEGRIS Health Edmond Hospital. Her vision was beginning to fade once she got into the car. “I got in the car with my husband, and I was like, ‘we’ve got to go,’” she said. “I was looking down and I could kind of see in front of me, but I couldn’t see out.”
Her Second Battle
Once Wiley arrived at the hospital, she learned that her PICC line from her cancer treatments had become infected and she was septic. “They determined I had sepsis and I had toxic shock syndrome, which I’ve learned now when you get that it’s not a good outcome,” Wiley said. “By Sunday morning, they asked my family to all get called in, honestly to say their goodbyes to me.”
The doctors at INTEGRIS Health worked to get Wiley approved for ECMO (extracorporeal membrane oxygenation). The INTEGRIS Health ECMO team has the ability to rapidly deploy lifesaving ECMO at hospitals throughout the state, an intervention which ultimately gave Wiley a fighting chance for survival.
The lifesaving therapy provides support to patients whose heart and/or lungs are so severely diseased or damaged that they can no longer serve their function. ECMO treatment is often considered as a last hope for patients in critical condition.
Once approved, the team got her prepped within a half hour. Due to fear that Wiley might not survive the ambulance ride to INTEGRIS Health Baptist Medical Center, more prep was given prior to treatment. Jordan Phillips M.D., a specialty critical care and ECMO physician with the INTEGRIS Health Nazih Zuhdi Transplant Institute, was brought in to assist with Wiley’s treatment. “When I was first consulted, Lindsey's condition was extremely critical,” Phillips said. “She likely would not have survived the rest of the day.”
ECMO to the Rescue
In the following days after treatment, Wiley’s kidneys and heart returned to normal after both were previously failing. “Lindsey made a remarkable turnaround after going on
ECMO,” Phillips said. “She was able to make a rapid recovery from an illness that would have likely claimed her life. It is a testament to the referring physicians at INTEGRIS Health Edmond Hospital for not delaying their call to the ECMO Hotline, and the ability of our team to deploy rapidly.”
After recovering, Wiley’s elated to experience a return to normalcy and be there for her family. She recognizes how being near the INTEGRIS Health facilities saved her life. “It’s just amazing to understand that Oklahoma has these services and ECMO,” Wiley said. “I would not be here today without them. Oklahomans are so lucky to have this close by because I was such a serious case that if it was far away, I don’t know if I would’ve made it. I have nothing but happiness when I think of that even though it was a horrible time.”
INTEGRIS Health was the first in Oklahoma to establish a specialized life support program solely devoted to adult patients facing imminent death. The system has a 24-hour ECMO hotline: 844-436-ECMO (3266). ECMO physicians are available 24/7/365 for consultation with other hospitals and doctors throughout the state.
