Doctors told family to say 'goodbye' to sick mom — then her husband checked AI as a last resort and told the doctors what to do
Technology might come in handy at the most unexpected moments. However, one family hadn't expected that AI would give them life-saving medical advice. A mom of five had survived stage four cancer, but a few years later, she had to be admitted to the hospital because of severe pneumonia. The doctor had told the family to gather at the hospital and say their goodbyes to the woman, Linda Doane. But then her husband decided to take pictures of all her vitals and upload them to an AI software. He hadn't thought that the software would end up saving his wife's life, per PEOPLE.
Linda had been diagnosed with stage 4 non-Hodgkin's lymphoma when she was 41 years old. After that, the woman had been through over 10 years of treatment before she went into remission back in 2022. "That was a journey that lasted over 10 years. I've had eight different IV chemos. I've had three oral chemos. I have lost my hair three times. I've had methotrexate injected into my spinal fluid. When it spread to my brain, they found that out through a brain biopsy. Pokes, prods, procedures. I know hard things for sure." But in May 2025, she had been feeling a little sick. As she had been in remission for three years, Linda thought that she would get better with rest.
However, her condition got worse and the woman was admitted to the hospital because of pneumonia. "I got ambulanced to the hospital and within two days at the hospital, by day three, they called my family to come and say goodbye." As a last resort, her husband decided to get help from AI. He took pictures of all the vitals and asked AI for a possible way to save Linda. The AI suggested that Linda should be put on ECMO (extracorporeal membrane oxygenation). The hospital didn't have that machine, so Linda was moved to another one through an eight-minute survival flight. "They hooked me up rather quickly to ECMO. I was on ECMO for two weeks and then I was on the ventilator."
"I woke up, tied to a bed and with a ventilator and everything and it was by far the hardest thing I've ever dealt with in my entire life," Linda pointed out. "You have a 50% chance of survival. Once I got off the ECMO and I was on the ventilator, I was tube-fed, tied down and didn't get to move around for 42 days." The woman was also told that she was the sickest patient at the hospital at that time once she regained consciousness. Linda had been consistently exercising regularly for many years after her diagnosis. Because of her "pre-work," she was gradually able to recover with the help of physical therapy.
Six months after the May 2025 hospital stay, the mom just had to go for check-in scans and some visits. She also gets bloodwork done every six months to ensure that her cancer hasn't returned. "We don't know what's coming. Do the pre-work, and then whatever comes, we can face it. Life is a blessing and there's just so much joy to be had every day. I hope people live that way. It's a blessing. Being alive is a blessing," Linda went on. "If there's anything that we can do physically, spiritually, or emotionally to prepare for that, then we should do it."