Yahoo Sports Will Power 'Beyond Grateful' as Wife Liz Attends Indy 500 Months After Near-Fatal Infection (Exclusive)
The IndyCar driver rushed his wife to the hospital with a 106-degree fever in January
Courtesy of IndyCAR
Months after Will Power's wife Liz underwent emergency spinal surgery, the couple says they're "beyond grateful" she was able to watch him race in the Indianapolis 500 over the long weekend.
Will, 42, finished 23rd in Sunday's race, but the Team Penske driver has much to celebrate after Liz was able to join him at Sunday's event after a sudden health scare almost took her life earlier this year.
Liz tells PEOPLE she was experiencing back pain more severe than she was used to on an afternoon in January, but chalked it up to the effects of carrying around her and Will's son Beau, 6.
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"I've always kind of had lower back pain, but it was getting extreme. I thought I'd just tweaked my back," she continues.
Suddenly, Liz "could barely walk" and her fever spiked up to 106 degrees. "Will called 911 and at that point, I don't actually remember a lot 'cause I obviously was kind of delirious from such a high fever."
Courtesy of IndyCAR
"It was an infection that got into my spinal column and they had to do emergency spinal surgery. It was a very, very scary situation, and I did almost die," explains Liz, who has become a regular at her husband's races over the years.
Once her husband's biggest cheerleader, Liz was suddenly forced to stay home and begin her "long road" to recovery.
"I had to be on 12 weeks of antibiotics, IV antibiotics, and three times a day antibiotics" through a peripherally inserted central catheter, says Liz, whose medical team advised her to avoid unnecessary in-person interactions while she recovered.
"So not only did I have major back surgery, but I was also battling this infection," she says.
What's more, Will withdrew from the Rolex 24 at Daytona, a race Liz says "he'd been wanting to do very badly" to help care for his wife. "He wasn't able to because of me, which is tough, but he juggled everything and was great about it."
Darron Cummings/AP Photo
Will says he didn't even give it "a second thought" when he decided to pull out of the race to be with his wife in the hospital. "As soon as it happened, I called the team," he says. "Family comes first every time."
After months of recovery, with a "ways still to go," Liz was able to attend Sunday's race and cheer on her husband. "It's just great having her come when I come back to the bus and come back to the hotel at night after practice," Will tells PEOPLE.
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The couple says they made it through the months of recovery with the support of family and friends, including Will's NASCAR teammates and colleagues. "Rick Hendrick and Roger Penske helped a lot," Will shares.
"We had help from family and friends coming from the moment I got out of the hospital, it was like a weekly rotation," says Liz, who has taken away a valuable realization from the last six months.
"I think this whole thing, and I think for the world too, it's kind of taught us to slow down a little bit and just take it as it comes," she says.
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