Trinity Shores isn't your typical teenager. After spending eight months in the hospital recovering from a rare illness, the Cheyenne Central sophomore is back in school and continues to inspire people around the country with her motivational message. Last week, Trinity was the guest speaker at a fundraising event for a non-profit group in California.

"Try harder and stop whining," Shores encouraged the audience at the Loveall Foundation for Children in Roseville, Calif.

In January, Trinity went to the school nurse with a fever. When her lungs filled up fluid, she was rushed to the hospital and diagnosed with Influenza B. The virus eventually turned into Pneumonia, then Sepsis, then the life-threatening staph infection MRSA.  Three open-heart surgeries later, Shores is now one of only seven patients to survive the rare combination of infection and doctors expect her to make a full recovery.

After high school, Trinity hopes to become a specialist on the same ECMO (extracorporeal membrane oxygenation circuit) machine that saved her life.

"I already have experience," she told the Sacramento Bee.

 

 

 

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