Lester Holt

Autumn's mother, Lois Klein, said they got in the car immediately to drive through the night to Pittsburgh.

She was counting out the exits.

Back in the ER, a resident trying to rally Autumn's failing body stuck an IV into her and noticed something quite odd.

Her blood in his tube showed shocking red.

And the observation of that doc at the bedside that this blood is too red.

Why am I seeing blood this brilliantly red saturation?

To them, this was out of this world.

Just couldn't make any sense out of it.

Eventually, Autumn went into cardiac arrest.

Doctors managed to bring her back barely.

They actually took turns doing chest compressions to try to get some reaction from her, to try to get her heart moving and pumping again.

Another doctor reviewed Autumn's symptoms and ordered up a test.

He wanted a toxicology screen of her blood.

hours passed.

Her blood was being pumped into a machine that was doing the oxygenating work of her heart and lungs.

At some point, word had reached her cousin Sharon, now living in Washington State.

Sharon talked by phone to Autumn's frantic husband, Bob, and was grateful for his medical background.

Eventually, though, Autumn lost brain function.

By the time her parents finally made it to the hospital, they could see there was little hope for their daughter.

Sharon wanted desperately to fly out from Washington State to see Autumn, but her Aunt Lois told her to wait.