For more than 36 years, Herman “HF” Middleton and his wife, Regina, have shared life side by side.
They married in 1989, the same year Regina began her career as a nurse at Our Lady of the Lake. Over the decades, the Lake has been central to their lives — her workplace, their family’s support system, and now, the place where HF’s life was saved.
HF had already been through a difficult year of health issues in 2025: heart problems, anemia and cirrhosis of the liver. Still, at 61 years old, he managed to keep going until late May, when he suddenly spiked a high fever and developed agonizing pain in his right calf.
Regina knew something was terribly wrong. As a case manager nurse, she knew HF’s symptoms weren’t something to take lightly, so they went to an urgent care clinic before ending up in the Lake’s emergency department.
At first, doctors looked for clots in HF’s leg, but with all the pain he was in, that was a challenge. It took two tries to do an MRI scan because it hurt too much to lay down and stay still.
Doctors didn’t find any blood clots, DVT or pulmonary embolism. Instead, imaging revealed muscle necrosis, which is dead tissue, that raised the terrifying possibility of amputation.
By this time, HF’s blood pressure had collapsed, his lactic acid was dangerously high, and his organs were shutting down. He was in septic shock.
The Power of IntelliSep
HF’s case is a powerful example of the hospital’s use of IntelliSep, a test that can confirm sepsis in fewer than 10 minutes. The hospital developed the test in 2023 to make quicker diagnoses of sepsis cases and other underlying conditions, like HF had.
Chistopher Thomas, MD, vice president and chief quality officer for Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady Health System, has led the implementation of IntelliSep throughout the health system. He recalled looking over HF’s file with his attending physician, Matthew Buzhardt, MD, in the early morning when the Middletons arrived in the ER. They believed he had an infection that was causing sepsis, a body’s extreme reaction to an infection that can damage its own organs. They ran the Intellisep test, and in 10 minutes it came back as band 3, meaning HF was positive for sepsis.
By quickly nailing down the sepsis diagnosis, the physicians were able to order blood cultures and start HF on fluids and antibiotics. The blood cultures revealed the underlying cause of HF’s health troubles: vibrio. Cases of the flesh-eating bacteria have surged in 2025 along the Eastern and Gulf Coast. One-in-5 people who get the infection die, and anyone with it requires intensive medical care.
Still, HF’s vibrio diagnosis surprised even the doctors because his symptoms weren’t usual for that infection.
“He was so early in the typical course of what you guys have read about in vibrio that it was even abnormal for us as physicians,” Dr. Thomas says. “And so he would have had a completely different diagnosis before we had the test.”
But because Intellisep led them to the early sepsis diagnosis and treatment, Dr. Buzhardt and Dr. Thomas were able to catch the vibrio infection early before it could do more damage. For Dr. Thomas, IntelliSep represents a shift in what doctors can do for patients.
“Around here in the ER, we talk about getting people back to their dinner table. He’s the example of that,” Dr. Thomas says. “Him going home changes her life and his life. That’s the difference.”
Regina, who had seen IntelliSep in action for other patients, now witnessed its value in her own family.
“It’s an amazing thing to have,” she says. “If we had waited another day, he wouldn’t be here. Getting that test and starting treatment right away saved his life.”
The Struggle of Recovery
Surviving sepsis was only the beginning. HF’s body was overwhelmed, and his recovery would take months. His body was swollen from fluid buildup from the infection, which inflicted incredible amounts of pain on his legs and feet.
“I couldn’t walk. The bottom of your feet and your ankles — it’s like somebody’s stabbing you with ice picks or something,” he says. “I had therapy coming in, and they literally had to hold me up and walk with a walker. Just go from here to the wall and back. And then we’d go about five feet further the next day and keep doing that. But it hurt so bad. I wanted to cry. The pain level was immense.”
Eventually, HF had a tube placed in his abdomen to start draining fluid. As more than three and a half liters of fluid came out during that procedure, HF could see his waist and legs deflate back to their normal sizes. In total, he lost more than 50 pounds of fluid buildup.
“When they took that fluid off of me and I got back to my room, I told Regina, ‘This is good. This is better. I can just feel the weight off of me,’” HF says.
Regina was there every step, watching HF battle through exhaustion and setbacks. “It’s hard seeing someone you love hurting like that,” she says. “But every day, we saw small improvements.”
Holding On to Each Other
Now, months later, the couple is thankful for the care HF received and the progress he has made. He still gets weak at times and hasn’t gone back to his job as an electrician, but both he and Regina are grateful for more time to spend with each other and their kids, Brennan and Lauryn.
“If it wasn’t for her, I probably wouldn’t be here,” he says of Regina.
For Regina, the ordeal put everything in perspective.
“It makes me a little teary eyed now, but it was nothing but the grace of God that he survived this,” she says. “And he’s able to be where he’s at, be able to talk to us today. We’re just very blessed.”
