Renee Dillion, STAR Writer

You don't want to be a lupus patient.

"It is a sickness that can cause many different things to happen to you. Whatever (illness) you didn't have before, if the doctors say you have it, don't be surprised. That is lupus," said Georgia Walsh when she spoke to THE STAR recently.

For the past 15 years she has been battling lupus, a chronic, autoimmune disease that can damage any part of the body (skin, joints, and/or organs inside the body).

Walsh has cheated death.

From surviving a near-fatal car crash in 2003 to surviving cancer to being crippled for two weeks during her pregnancy, she still believes her closest encounter with death came in April 2011 during her lupus struggle.

"It was a Thursday. I got up the morning and I washed, I even washed my hair. When I finished washing the last piece of clothes, I realised the terrible pain I was feeling. Me couldn't stand up, me couldn't sit down and me couldn't lay down. My stomach was swollen. Me start to cry because the pain was that terrible," she said.

But it was her church's anniversary and she wouldn't miss it for anything.

She continued, "My daughter and my friend told me not to go to church, but I told them if they left me there, they would come back to find a dead body. That was how terrible I was feeling. I said I preferred to die in church."

Georgia recalls exactly what happened in service that day.

"I couldn't sing, I couldn't rock. There was this pastor there looking at me. He started singing a song, Sick and Helpless and Ready to Die, and they came to me and started praying. By the time dem finish, I was able to sing and clap. Him say to me, 'make sure you go to the doctor tomorrow'," she said.

But Walsh was right. Whatever happens to you when you are a Lupus patient, do not be surprised.

"Early the next morning, the pain started again. I went to the hospital. When they saw my condition, they rushed with me to emergency. When the doctor examine me, the doctors said I was losing blood somewhere and my organs were shutting down," she said.

Perhaps ironically, Walsh was surprised to discover a cyst that was ruptured, which was causing extreme amounts of blood loss internally. This resulted in an immediate surgery. This was a surgery that many have managed to go into, but never made it out of alive.

Doctors told her that she had less than a 50 per cent chance of a successful surgery.

"When the doctor turned to my family and told them I may not make it, they started to cry. I told them God is on the job. I said to the doctor, 'you do your part and leave the rest to God,''' Walsh said.

She had lost so much blood that during the surgery, she had to be given nine pints to suffice.

A day later, Walsh woke up on ward nine, where she would stay for three weeks.

"I was the talk on the ward," she said. "The surgeon came and said she had to come and see if I was still here because she couldn't believe I made it out. Other doctors shook my hands. They couldn't believe. Even on my birthday, they came to my bedside and sang happy birthday because they didn't know I would live to see it."

Walsh believes how she escaped death was nothing short of a miracle and though she is still battling lupus, she is determined to win.