Christmas miracle: Spouse dances after 5-year illness Published Dec. 18, 2013 By Airman 1st Class Jaeda Waffer 375th Air Mobility Wing Public Affairs SCOTT AIR FORCE BASE, Ill. -- "It took the doctors seven hours to save my life, and I was told I would never dance again." That's how Kim White described her "heartbreaking news" in 2009 after a misdiagnosis landed her in the emergency room which led to 13 surgeries, months of hospitalizations and intensive care, a 25 percent survival rate, and a five-year recovery process. Though she will be on pain management the rest of her life, she celebrated her return to dance Dec. 6 when she performed a tap routine in her church's Christmas musical. "I'm in my 40s and to be able to audition for this part with a bunch of 20-year-olds was a blessing ... being able to dance again is truly a miracle." Her ordeal began when she complained about stomach pains and was brought in for a simple diagnostic procedure, but was released. Two days later she was in the emergency room fighting for her life, having suffered a perforated colon. She went immediately into surgery, and the infection was so severe, that the doctors delayed closing up her incision for about a month. Her husband, Col. Timothy White, Air Mobility Command director of staff, said, "It was torture for her. There was a point when I was holding her hand beside her hospital bed, and she leaned over to me with a tear in her eye and said, 'please let me go.'" Kim's hospitalization began to play out as a type of deployment for their family, and the primary goal was to ensure the lives of their three children--triplets--were as normal as possible. The colonel said when they found out Kim's hospitalization could take months or years, he changed how he ran the household. "It became more militaristic with checklists and certain things in certain places," he said. "It was a struggle for our family; we knew what was wrong and what was going on. I remember one of our then 7-year-old triplets saying to me, 'mom is going to die, isn't she?'" It took a huge support team for Kim to even be able to tap dance again. She'd been dancing since she was just 5 years old. Her parents owned a dance company, in which she competed in dance competitions throughout her entire life. In 1995, her tap dancing routine helped her win the title of Miss North Dakota. "Dancing is a part of who I am as a person, I could never imagine not dancing," said Kim. "The biggest thing is to never give up. I could not let devastation defeat me. I had to realize some days are better than others." She said her faith, family, nutritionist and personal trainer all helped to make her dream into a reality. "One of the things I learned through this process is that every marriage goes through its trials," she said. "I learned what it means to truly love someone. Tim loved me in ways most couples do not have to go through until they are in their golden ages."