SUCCESS STORIES; OLIVE VIEW CELEBRATES RECOVERIES.

Byline: Sandy Yang Staff Writer

Last Christmas Eve, doctors expected Lillian Carrera to die.

On Thursday, Carrera was well enough to speak at the second annual Patient Recognition Day at Los Angeles County Olive View UCLA Medical Center, where she was one of several patients with dramatic stories of recovery.

``I can't believe I'm here today,'' she said tearfully, surrounded by her three daughters, mother and niece.

Admitted to the hospital in Sylmar for flu symptoms, Carrera experienced complications, and her lungs began to collapse. While she was hooked up to myriad tubes and a ventilator, her kidney and liver also failed, and blood clots formed in a leg.

The 31-year-old housewife and mother of three daughters suffered from acute respiratory distress syndrome, a complication from pneumonia that causes lung capillaries to leak and, in severe cases, can lead to multiple organ failure.

``Every day I thought I would have to tell her little girls that their mother died,'' said her doctor, Dr. Susan Stein, who predicted less than a 1 percent chance Carrera would survive.

But the doctor never had to carry out that grim task.

Stein introduced Carrera at the reunion.

``This is the first time I saw her walk,'' said Stein, who attributed Carrera's success and other recoveries to the 2,150 staff members, from doctors and nurses to X-ray technicians and administrators.

``Everyone put their best effort and had the attitude, this patient's not going to die on my shift,'' Stein said.

The hospital sponsored the event for staff members to see patients who were barely clinging to life a few months ago and now are healthy.

``The disadvantage is that we don't hear the end of the story,'' said Dr. David Talon, Chief of Emergency Medicine. ``With this event, it brings closure to the doctors, nurses, paramedics, everyone.''

Truck driver Michael Taylor, 34, of Winnetka was another patient who returned for a happy reunion.

Coincidentally, he suffered the same problem as Carrera with the same small chance of survival. While he was hospitalized for more than four months at Olive View earlier this year, his family was beginning to think of funeral plans.

But with the care of his family and the medical staff, ``I got the chance to live and to carry on with my life,'' he said Thursday.

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Photo: Left, Dr. Vena Ricketts and far right, Dr. Susan Stein, celebrate with patients Lillian Carrera and Michael Taylor, who ``beat the odds'' at Olive View Hospital in Sylmar.

Phil McCarten/Staff Photographer