DAPHNE, Ala. — On June 8, 2009, Katie Hamlin was admitted to Thomas Hospital in Fairhope with pneumonia.

On June 11, 2009, she was put into a drug-induced coma and diagnosed with acute respiratory distress syndrome; her lungs were not working or creating enough oxygen for her body.

On June 13, 2009, Katie was sent by jet to Children’s Hospital in Birmingham. The next day, her heart stopped and she was put on a life support machine.

Katie, 16, was released from the hospital on Jan. 14. She was out of her coma, no longer required constant nurses’ care, and could break free from a machine that supplied oxygen to her body.

She was out of the woods and returned home to Daphne with her relieved parents, Bob and Susie Hamlin.

But Katie’s teenage life took a major step back to her life before the hospitalization on Aug. 16, when she attended her first day of school at Daphne High.

A new school year,

a different school

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Editor’s Note: You’re reading the first of a five-part feature on Daphne resident Katie Hamlin’s life after what many have called a miraculous recovery from acute respiratory distress syndrome. 

The driven 16-year-old is starting a new school year at Daphne High School.

See the rest of this story in the Aug. 27 Daphne Bulletin.