Rhianna Benson
It's been two years since American father Steven Spinale was left fighting for his life after doing something as innocent as pulling out an ingrown hair.
The pesky hair was trapped in his groin region, but after it was removed in 2022, the then-36-year-old was suddenly taken ill.
According to Steven's friends and family, this sickness lasted for around a month, with doctors seemingly unable to determine what had impacted his health so dramatically.
"He was turned away at numerous hospitals [who thought] he was making it up. He started vomiting blood and they still sent him home," Steven's sister Michelle later explained his predicament in a heartbreaking TikTok.
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"The next day, my sister had to call 911 because he couldn't breathe."
During his final assessment, however, medical staff eventually determined that he was 'bleeding internally from somewhere'.
And while that chilling thought may have sent shivers down your spine, according to Michelle, this bleeding was the 'smallest' of all the family's worries.
Doctors found that Steven had a 'rare bacteria', which was 'ravaging through his body and shutting down his organs'.
He was officially diagnosed with sepsis (blood poisoning), before suffering a number of subsequent life-threatening ailments, including influenza A and double pneumonia.
During his time in hospital, a GoFundMe page was set up to raise money with the aim of helping Steven's family pay his medical bills.
"He has ARDS (acute respiratory distress syndrome) his lungs aren’t working," the page explained.
"The doctors are doing everything they possibly can do for him and if anyone could pull thru this it’s him."
Medics then made the difficult decision to place Steven into a coma, after which they tragically informed his family that he had only a four percent chance of survival.
After the sepsis reached his heart, he suffered a 'small stroke', according to Michelle, and was forced to undergo open heart surgery.
Miraculously, after remaining in a coma for a month, Steven awoke, having suffered no signs of brain damage at all.
A update posted some months later explained that the dad had a 'long road ahead of him', but was 'steadily on his way'.
Michelle told her TikTok followers at the time that her brother had recently learned to 'sit up on his own', which she described as 'amazing', adding that Steven has a 'new sparkle in his eyes' after proving 'doctors wrong'.