Teegan Werth – Hillsboro
Basketball and volleyball standout, Teegan Werth from Hillsboro High School, has battled back from pneumothorax which caused a hole to form in her left lung. This condition caused a 40 percent collapse of the lung forcing two emergency surgeries to remove the hole along with having her lung attached to her chest cavity. Attaching the lung ensured that if she experienced another pneumothorax her lung would not be able to collapse. Now a senior, Werth is completely healed and back to 100 percent.
“I am completely done with having to do any sort of breathing treatment. My lung has completely inflated to the full capacity and can fully function on its own,” said Werth. “I would first like to point out that God had a hold of my whole situation. God was able to give me a sense of peace while I was going through the struggles and pain during this experience. God protected me in my surgeries and gave me the chance to play basketball that same year. All the credit and glory goes to Him.”
Through it all, Werth always felt she would get better and with the help of her doctors and nurses she did just that.
“Every single nurse and doctor I came in contact with were extremely kind. The nurses’ especially do not get enough credit for how well they treat their patients. Each nurse I had always treated me with love and compassion. They knew I was pain so they did everything they could to make me as comfortable as possible. Whenever I rang for them, each nurse was there not later than a minute. They knew exactly when I needed my medicine and cared for my stitches very gently. Each nurse made me feel safe to be there,” said Werth.
And the support she received from her teammates is something she will not soon forget.
“I love how close everyone is on the team. It is so encouraging to know that you have people who will support you no matter what. Each year for both sports that I play, we do a secret Santa. I absolutely love this because we really get to know each and every one of our teammates. This also provides everyone with a chance to get to know the under classmen. This event especially brings our team together,” said Werth. “Another thing that I love is how much fun we have. During practices, we are always able to have fun and make each other laugh. This makes practices not drag one because we have so much fun with each other on the court. This is the same with games. I love how we don’t put pressure on anyone to perform a certain way. Because of this, it relaxes the anxiousness we might have and lets every play their game.”