A Story of Survival and Skin Recovery — Kate’s Metrin Story
Kate nearly died on October 10, 1990.
She doesn’t remember the exact moment her heart failed — only the effort it took to stay conscious.
“It was so hard to hang on,” she recalls. “I could feel myself slipping away.”
She had suffered a massive coronary. Doctors told her husband, Preston, that it was unlikely she would survive the night. Over and over again, her heart stopped — and over and over again, she was brought back by electric shocks delivered to her chest.
The paddles burned her skin each time they were used.
She doesn’t remember feeling pain.
All she remembers is trying to stay alive long enough for her children to arrive.
Holding On
Kate drifted in and out of consciousness for more than a day. Each time she slipped into sleep, her heart threatened to stop again.
She remembers fragments. Her husband and three sons being ordered out of the room. A priest she didn’t know anointing her. A nurse pounding on her chest, calling her name, telling her to stay with him.
She hovered between life and death until her daughter Jane arrived from New York. Only then was she told she could finally rest.
That was when she knew the fight was over.
After Survival Comes Recovery
In the days that followed, Kate began the slow process of healing in the Critical Care Unit.
Her body was exhausted. Her skin was not herself.
“My face felt extremely dry,” she says. “And my chest was burned where the paddles had been applied.”
The burns were significant enough to be noted in her medical chart. “I looked as if I’d hugged a couple of hot plates,” she says simply.
Kate wasn’t thinking about appearance. She was thinking about comfort. About care. About not overwhelming her body while it healed.
So she asked Jane to bring her Metrin.
Choosing What She Already Trusted
Kate had been using Metrin for years by that point. She had come to it originally because of a dark spot on her nose that doctors told her was harmless — but permanent.
Over time, with consistent use, that spot faded and disappeared. She trusted the system not because it promised quick change, but because it respected her skin.
In the hospital, that mattered more than ever.
“I used it very gently,” she says. “Nothing aggressive. Nothing extra.”
She applied the Vita Conditioner lightly.
The Protective Lotion generously.
The Enriched Vita Conditioner to support her skin barrier.
She repeated this several times a day — not to fix anything, but to help her skin recover.
An Unexpected Moment
About a week later, Kate was transferred to another hospital for angioplasty. When she arrived, a nun reviewed her chart and commented on the seriousness of the burns on her chest. Kate opened the front of her pyjama top.
They both looked. There were no burn marks.
No scars. No visible injury.
Just intact, healthy skin.
“We looked at each other and then back again,” Kate remembers. “There was nothing there.”
What Stayed With Her
Nothing compared to the miracle of being alive.
Kate is clear about that.
But the way her skin healed — quietly, completely, without complication — stayed with her. Not as something dramatic. As something steady.
“That experience taught me something,” she says. “When your body has been through trauma, it doesn’t need to be challenged. It needs to be supported.”
Kate Today
Kate doesn’t speak about miracles lightly. She speaks about gratitude.
She still gives thanks — for her life, for her family, and for the people who brought Metrin into her world when she needed something she could trust.
“My skin has been through enough,” she says. “I know now when to care for it — and when to leave it alone.”
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