Photo By Staff Sgt. Nichole Sanchez | Oregon Air National Guard recruiter, Staff Sgt. Tori Luxem explains service benefits...... read more read more
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PORTLAND, Ore.--In the dead of night Staff Sgt. Tori Luxem was a haunted vision; she sat upright in bed with catatonic eyes, her arms extended out. Her husband, Chris Luxem called to her, “Tori.” His voice echoed into the void.
She didn’t answer and her lack of response was concerning.
Tori’s infant son, Ronan, hugged one side of her body while her toddler, Warrick lay on the other. Chris knew from his background in nursing that he needed to get his wife to lie on her side. Time was of the essence; Tori had begun to froth at the mouth and was having a full-blown grand mal seizure.
This seizure would be the prelude to hundreds of more seizures that followed at the hospital.
Tori had been the embodiment of health and wellness, from being a fitness coach, former body builder, and served in the military for the past ten years. Her time in service started in the 142nd Security Forces Squadron (SFS) at Portland Air National Guard Base, Oregon, where she worked for the first nine years of her career. She had only recently transitioned to the wing’s recruiting team last year.
Tori’s seizure came as a shock, and an overwhelming sense of responsibility came over her family as many tests were run to determine the cause . Answers were not being found, and seizures came like rounds of ammo.
It would quickly become clear that Tori’s battle and the ability to find resources would be tried, they would need a village. Unbeknownst to Tori and Chris at the time, that village would be the 142nd Wing.
Chris began to understand the stress they would be under upon arrival at the hospital: finding childcare, having to drive for hours to and from the hospital, and needing breastmilk for baby Ronan.
“The first four days I wasn’t eating or sleeping because I was with Tori all the time, that’s when Master Sgt. Zachary Scribner (recruiting flight chief, Oregon National Guard) had come to me, like , ‘hey you need to eat,’ so he brought me food and let me nap…from the beginning, I realized I couldn’t do everything, so it was just a huge relief off my shoulders.”
Scribner encouraged Chris to have a support system, to let the 142nd Wing pick up the slack and help with those external factors so that he could have the mental fortitude and emotional bandwidth for his wife amongst the chaos.
Chris, accepting of support, allowed the base to hold a meeting at the 142nd Wing Resiliency Center where a game plan of sorts was set into action. One of the most incredible responses was regarding their son, Ronan. At two and a half months old he was imminently needing breastmilk for nutrition. In the first week alone, they were able to collect 1,600 ounces of breastmilk. The extraordinary efforts came from all over Oregon and Washington State.
The base collected an outpouring of donations that went towards accommodations, fuel, time, yardwork, and driving to families’ homes to deliver food (where their children were being watched by different family members). This saved Chris hours of commute time, enabling him to stay bedside with his wife.
“I feel like they did so much for me that enabled me to be there for Tori,” said Chris. It’s almost like this debt I can’t repay because the amount of support that I got from the military was just immense.”
During the darkest days of her time in the hospital, familiar faces would try to add warmth to a bed on the brink of going cold. Chief Master Sgt. Rebecca Brit, the 142nd Security Forces Chief at the time, and Senior Master Sgt. Stephen Davis, 142nd SFS Readiness Superintendent, were two that frequented her bedside.
“They would come visit me often and at one point, Davis held my hand because he thought I was going to die,” said Tori.
It would all come to a head when the Luxem family learned the gravity of the situation as Tori’s vitality began to fade. Believing she would succumb to her illness, the hospital put her on the casualty list.
Chris would have to make the ultimate decision of putting her either in a coma or having brain surgery, not knowing how either would play out.
Chris chose the coma. Two days later, Tori woke.
Feeling the scratch of her internal jugular line (IJ) against her neck, Tori attempted to rip it out. Hours later with her wrist tied to the hospital bed, her vigor became a telling indication of her will to fight, to live.
Once she was released from the hospital she began her journey, her road to recovery. In five months, she surpassed all expectations of her physicians and doctors. She was the embodiment of tireless motivation and moxie.
Tori’s recollections are reliant on those closest to her. For now, she doesn’t remember the unrelenting seizures, six spinal taps, breathing tubes, feeding tubes, and IJ line.
Tori embraces her inner jokester while finding comfort in hearing memories that embody her humanity and lightheartedness. Chris will share photos of her in the hospital with braids and cords protruding out of her skull, which she refers to herself as looking like the creature in the movie, Alien.
Her sense of humor and tenacity have powered her through cognitive exercises and what others might see as a challenge she takes on as opportunity.
While in recovery, Tori has found her experience has changed her, and she has grown in ways she could not have anticipated.
“I believe everything happens for a reason,” said Tori. “I’ve just changed in different ways; I used to be shut off. I’m a better person… I’m more open to people and more understanding and very empathetic and social.”
Characteristics she acquired through her affliction continue to help her with new recruits and the varying challenges they face in trying to enter military service.
What made her recovery so remarkable was her refusal to take the uniform for granted.
“Take me out of the hospital, I want to go back to work,” said Tori. “I want to put my uniform back on, it’s a pride thing.”
Tori’s pride in uniform is such an innate part of her being and indicative of her will to continue to serve and her unrelenting will to survive.
| Date Taken: | 03.11.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 03.11.2025 16:21 |
| Story ID: | 492546 |
| Location: | PORTLAND AIR GUARD STATION, OREGON, US |
| Web Views: | 80 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Airman Returns to Service after Near-Fatal Medical Emergency, by SSgt Nichole Sanchez, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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