43-year-old Lindsey Wiley’s last chemotherapy treatment should have been the beginning of a new chapter in her breast cancer battle but instead led to yet another hurdle – one that she never would have imagined.
43-year-old Lindsey Wiley’s last chemotherapy treatment should have been the beginning of a new chapter in her breast cancer battle but instead led to yet another hurdle – one that she never would have imagined.
On Jan. 8, 2026, Wiley was relieved to complete her sixth and final chemotherapy treatment, but she knew her journey was long from over with nine months of immunotherapy ahead of her.
When she woke up the following morning, she knew something was off. She said she was more tired than usual, but she and her husband chalked it up to being a symptom of the last chemotherapy treatment. It wasn’t until Sunday that she knew something was seriously wrong.
“I was home alone with my 10-year-old daughter when I got up from resting and I fell,” she states. “I fell like five times in a row, and I knew right then that it was time to go to the emergency room.”
Wiley called her husband, who was at baseball practice with their eight-year-old son, and together, they raced to INTEGRIS Health Edmond Hospital. On their drive to the hospital, she remembers slowly losing the ability to see as her symptoms progressed.
Once Wiley was admitted, doctors quickly assessed her and identified that her port site from her cancer treatments had become infected and she was septic. Her organs were failing and her care team knew they needed to act fast. They immediately called the INTEGRIS Health ECMO (extracorporeal membrane oxygenation) Hotline. 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.
“When I was first consulted, Lindsey's condition was extremely critical,” says Jordan Phillips, M.D., a specialty critical care and ECMO physician. “She likely would not have survived the rest of the day.” He made the decision to transport her to INTEGRIS Health Baptist Medical Center to undergo ECMO treatment. It is a lifesaving therapy that provides support to patients whose heart and/or lungs are so severely diseased or damaged that they can no longer serve their function. It is often considered as a “last hope” for patients in critical condition.
Wiley’s care team rallied together to prepare her for the transfer. Wiley and her family are still amazed at the speed in which the care teams at both hospitals worked, giving her a chance to live.
Once she was settled at INTEGRIS Health Baptist Medical Center, Wiley continued to fight for her life for 48 hours before her health began to improve. Wiley’s kidneys, which were previously failing, were now completely normal. Her heart, which was rapidly failing before ECMO, is now functioning at levels near normal.
“Lindsey made a remarkable turnaround after going on ECMO,” Phillips says. “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.”
One thing that stood out to Wiley about her care at INTEGRIS Health was how personable the physicians and caregivers were throughout her 14 days in the hospital. While she already had friends, family and her community rallying behind her and praying for her recovery, physicians and caregivers took time to check on her progress and answer any questions she had.
“I just cannot be more grateful to INTEGRIS Health, the ECMO team and the doctors,” she says. “I am 43. I have an eight-year-old and an 11-year-old, and I want to be there to raise them. The INTEGRIS Health team acting quickly changed the trajectory of my life and my children’s lives. I was given a chance because of ECMO.”
