Sister remembers sibling, former Fulton nurse

A beloved Missouri and Illinois nurse who lived in Fulton will soon be taken off life support after her sister revived her through CPR July 23.

Amanda Burris has dedicated her entire professional career to providing health care and taking care of others, especially her sister, Windy Atterberry, who has had various medical issues for most of her life.

"She's taken care of me on and off for a mixture of medical problems for the last 15 years," Atterberry said.

Burris, the director of nursing at Helia Healthcare in Benton, IL, had been overseeing Atterberry's treatment for three months because she had an infection removed from her foot that was associated with a prolonged illness. Burris would give Atterberry three of the strongest antibodies to treat her sister's Osteomyelitis in her foot. She would also bring Atterberry her meals and spend quality time watching TV with her.

At about 5 a.m. July 23, Burris had rolled over and fell unconscious on top of her young son, who often slept with her.

"He was yelling, "Get mommy off me! Mommy's squishing me!""Atterberry said. "The little girl (Burris' daughter) started screaming, and that's when my sister, Shay, ran in there to check on things."

Atterberry and the other family members in the house woke up to Burris' children calling for help, and Shay realized Amanda was unresponsive. Windy dashed across the hall, despite being told she wasn't supposed to be moving on her injured foot, to see her sister and determined she wasn't breathing. She was the only one in the house who knew how to correctly administer CPR.

"I raised her up and started patting her and I said, "Mom, she isn't breathing,'" Atterberry said."Then I tilted her head back to make sure she didn't throw up and choke on it, and I started taking her off the bed and Shay said to just do CPR right there on the bed and I said, "No, you cannot - you gotta get her on the floor.'"

Atterberry's sister and mom helped move Burris to the floor, where Atterberry immediately started performing CPR. She tried resuscitating her sister for seven minutes before she finally felt a faint pulse.

"It was the worst thing I've had to go through," Atterberry said. "I gave her CPR until I puked and the EMTs came and took over."

Atterberry spent four days in the hospital when Burris was admitted because she reinjured her foot rushing across the hallway to give her sister CPR.

"When I ran in there, it reinjured all five of the fractures," she said.

Atterberry fell and was transported to the hospital shortly after her sister. She spent four nights in the hospital with her sister one floor above her. She said the hospital staff would not allow her to see her sister on the third floor of the hospital for two days.

"She had MRSA in her nose and they were afraid I was gonna get it," she said.

The doctors overseeing Burris believe the Fen-Phen diet pills she was taking may have been responsible for the incident, but no one knows how long she had been using them.

"The week leading up to it, her heart had been hurting, her sugar

had been like 60 after she ate a big meal and she kept saying she'd go to a doctor but she never did," Atterberry recalled.

Burris has been on life support for 14 days, and Atterberry said when she's taken off the ventilator her organs will be donated because "that's what Amanda would have wanted."

She described her sister as "very loving and caring" and very knowledgeable about medical care and medicine. Burris worked as a nurse at Presbyterian Manor at Fulton and as a pediatrician in Eldon before accepting the position at the Illinois health facility.

"Shay actually moved to Eldon to live with Amanda for awhile until they got her sugar levels under control when she had diabetes at one point," Atterberry said. "She definitely took care of her sisters, and she took care of her family."

She said several friends and family members have traveled four hours to the hospital in Mount Vernon, IL, where Burris is staying.

"People have stayed for a week at a time in the hospital waiting room to be with her,"Atterberry said. "My sister, Amy, and her husband, Javier, haven't left the hospital. They've been there for two weeks since it happened."

Atterberry said she loves her sister and will greatly miss watching movies with her, and sister for the help and unconditional support she's given her through difficult times with her extensive medical history.

"I'm actually going to get a tattoo on the foot that she helped me save that says "My sister was my anchor through my life form, the source of my life' and I'm going to put a little anchor of my foot," Atterberry said.