Everyone has seen a Chuck Norris meme at least once, and many have watched his movies.
The legendary martial artist and actor is famous for his action films and people just can’t stop coming up with funny quotes about his powers over the last years.
One of the best out there is that “Death once had a near-Chuck Norris experience”, and this story kind of supports that line.
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When Norris married his second wife, Gena O’Kelley 24 years ago, he had no idea they would both give a fight to save the woman from a fatal illness.
You see, about a decade ago, Gena underwent several MRI scans to check her rheumatoid arthritis. While MRI scans can be realized without a “contrast agent”, sometimes an injection is needed in order to have a better view of specific organs or tissues in order for doctors to decide how serious the problem is.
It seems that at some point, Gena received three injections within eight days. And that’s when the problems started.
“Within hours after the first jab I felt like my whole body was on fire — as if acid had been passed through it. […] The burning was isolated at first, but it just kept spreading,” Gena shared with Good Health.
Over the weeks that followed, the 50-year-old woman was rushed to the hospital six times. She was suffering from rib pain, tremors, and difficulty in breathing, among others.
Doctors couldn’t find the cause of her problems, but Gena, after searching her symptoms online, realized that she had been poisoned by the gadolinium injections she had received for the MRI scans.
When she told doctors about it, they all agreed that it couldn’t have been the case since the substance is supposed to leave the human body within hours after receiving it.
The couple spent the next few weeks trying to find a clinic that would accept their hypothesis and, soon, they found one.
A clinic in Nevada recognized gadolinium toxicity, so Gena was transferred there to be treated for her illness.
“By the time I reached the clinic — weeks after I had the injections — I had lost 15lb and was finding it hard to swallow — I had to be fed baby food,” O’Kelley admitted.
By then, Chuck Norris had realized that, if he wanted to help his wife that was going through a rough time and take proper care of her, he had to stop filming movies.
That’s when he decided to give up his career in order to devote himself to Gena whom he so much loves and make sure she would receive the best treatment.
The couple spent more than five months in the hospital, with the woman undergoing intensive treatment and receiving IVs on a daily basis.
When Gena started to get better, the couple decided to file a lawsuit 11 Big Pharma drug companies that make these contrast agents, and try to raise awareness of gadolinium poisoning.
While this story started out as a sad one, it became one of love and devotion.
Watch the couple talk about the impact Gena’s illness had on their wedding in the video below.
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