Woman's mysterious illness could not be diagnosed for 10 years — until contractors fixing her bathroom uncovered the truth
It can be challenging to deal with painful medical symptoms without any answers about what is causing them in the first place. In 2018, a woman named Kathi Wilson had to go through the same as she suffered from fatigue, muscle pain and more for years, but the doctors could not find out the reason behind her illness. She was struggling with everyday tasks, such as walking, until a contractor came into her house to fix her bathroom and found out the cause of her sickness, per Inside Edition.
Wilson had been suffering from extreme fatigue due to a mysterious illness for around 10 years when the reason behind her condition was discovered. Before that, she was walking with a cane due to muscle pain. Her symptoms, muscle aches, fatigue and malaise could be caused by any illness, like the flu, but they were getting worse over the years. "Over the years, it kept getting worse and worse," Wilson's daughter, Ashley, said, per the outlet. Wilson had tried visiting several doctors, taken different medications and had been through countless tests, but nothing ever showed up to explain how she was feeling. "[She had] cardiac testing, chest x-rays, MRIs [of] the brain, the spine, to see if something was related. I felt we were very thorough, but didn't come up with a solution," Wilson's doctor, Mary Beth Hensley, said.
Then, the family called for contractors to remodel their bathroom, and the workers were unexpectedly able to find the cause behind Wilson's deteriorating health. The furnace and water heater at her house hadn't been installed properly, and it was leaking carbon monoxide — a colorless and odorless gas that can be fatal for humans. "I felt like an 80-year-old stuck in the body of a 40-year-old," Wilson told ABC News. Along with her difficulty in walking, she had suffered from quite a few lung infections over the years. "The more I stayed at home, the sicker I felt." She did not have any illness and was suffering from all those symptoms due to chronic carbon monoxide poisoning.
The other members of her family suffered from some of the symptoms, too, but it was the hardest on Wilson. "The family was slowly being poisoned," Michael Evans, the contractor, explained. "This is the first time I have ever seen this." The symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning include headaches, stuffiness, dizziness and fatigue. The contractors discovered a leak within a month of working on the house, and everything started making sense all of a sudden. In higher amounts, the gas can be deadly for people, per the outlet. Improperly vented appliances or broken fixtures are a major reason behind the leaks.
After the discovery, they fixed the leak and Wilson started feeling better than before. "I feel like I have been given my life back and I am hoping that it will get some of the others their life back," she expressed. The family even had a carbon monoxide detector, but it didn't catch the leak for some reason. "I feel great. I haven't been this happy in I can't tell how long," Wilson told Inside Edition.