Patient Stories 
How one couple overcame a life-changing medical emergency and its aftermath with gratitude and strength.
To overcome a near-death illness, to lose a limb, to learn how to walk, talk, eat and write again: these are the things that most of us cannot imagine for ourselves, but even more, for our life partner, our best friend.
But this was the reality for Scott and Lisa Busack. Despite how easily the couple could have succumbed to this devastating challenge, they chose differently. They choose to be grateful.
It was October 2021, and the weight of the pandemic still hung heavily. Scott, the owner of a plumbing and heating business in Hill City, drove back early from a job in Sundance, Wyoming, and what started as familiar fatigue escalated into something more. When he arrived home, Scott got out an air mattress to sleep in another room, so as not to get Lisa sick.
But after Scott had been sick in bed for two days and began experiencing a charley horse-like pain in his leg, Lisa, a former EMT, felt in her gut that something was off.
“I told Scott, ‘You have two choices: either I’m calling an ambulance, or I am taking you to the hospital.’ So, we went to Monument Health Custer Hospital, and that’s when everything unfolded. I was telling the doctor about the charley horse, and that’s when I saw the panic in her eyes. I knew now that this was even worse than I thought,” said Lisa.
Doctors discovered that Scott had a severe blood clot in both legs, liver failure and a partially deflated lung, complications related to pneumonia caused by COVID-19.
“At that time, every hospital in South Dakota, Minnesota, Colorado and North Dakota was full. They didn’t know where he was going to go,” said Lisa.
But thanks to a stroke of luck, or as the Busacks believe, divine intervention, a bed became available at Monument Health Rapid City Hospital. Scott was transferred there quickly, where doctors performed surgery on his legs to address the blood clots.
Unfortunately, the clot in his left leg had caused irreversible damage, and the doctors were faced with the difficult but life-saving decision to amputate.
“I thank God that the Monument Health doctors and nurses were put in our path because they, along with the man upstairs, saved his life,” said Lisa.
After 45 days in the hospital, Scott had finally recovered enough to be discharged and transferred to a rehabilitation hospital in Sioux Falls, where he would face a challenge he never imagined for himself: learning to walk again.
Resilience in the Face of Adversity
Scott’s illness had left him a shadow of his former self. Down 65 pounds, he could no longer walk, talk or even write.
“When I arrived, the staff asked me what my goal was,” Scott recalled. “I told them, ‘I’m going to walk again.’ They wrote it on my board, and it became my focus—something I kept in front of me every day.”
Throughout his month and a half at the physical rehabilitation hospital, Scott kept his attention focused on his goal, going through an intense process of relearning essential skills and rebuilding his strength.
“There were so many moments when he could have said, ‘I can’t,’ but instead, he just found a way to do it. It might not always be the easy way, but we figure it out together. I think it’s a lesson for our grandkids and the rest of the family,” said Lisa.
Thankful for Every Day
More than two years later, Scott has regained much of his function. He is now able to walk on his prosthetic leg, return to work and continue spending precious time with his family and grandchildren.
Reflecting on their journey, Lisa shares the couple’s changed outlook on life: “We don’t take life too seriously anymore. Don’t sweat the little things, because you never know what’s going to happen tomorrow. Enjoy and be grateful for what you have in front of you now.”