NORTON SHORES, Mich. — If you're meeting John Marchiando for the first time, his tattoos might be one of the first things you notice about him. His arms are like two canvases, nearly full to the brim with color and character. And John is happy to answer any questions you might have about his ink.
"Please! It's not like I can hide them," he said with a smile and a laugh.
John, who is now 58, actually didn't get his first tattoo until a few years ago. He has a Japanese-inspired sleeve that leads into a chest piece. On his other arm, he has a paisley sleeve, like the designs he wore on his dress shirts for many years.
But the word "BELIEVE" written in graffiti-style blue letters just might be his most meaningful tattoo.
"Somebody was giving me a hard time about it. 'Is that for Ted Lasso?' No. Thank you, but no. It's really about - I mean, that's what got us all through," John said, referencing one of the most difficult times of his life.
"I went to Vegas for a work trip, and I'm kind of living proof that what happens in Vegas doesn't stay there. I brought some sort of strep infection back and it went into my bloodstream and I had bilateral pneumonia. I didn't realize it at the time. I took myself to urgent care. And they said 'You are way too sick to be here, brother!' And they put me in an ambulance, sent me to the ER. They pushed me right back in, and by that night, I was on a ventilator and it just went downhill from there. I had kidney and liver failure. I was in a coma for 21 days."
Waking up from that coma was only the beginning of what would be a tough road to recovery. John lost a lot of body weight while he was in the hospital. One of his doctors described him as just being skin and bones.
"Seeing the photographs now, it's like an out-of-body experience. I just can't believe that I was actually in that situation, because now I'm back at 185 [pounds], and I feel great, but there for a while, my lowest I was 114," he said.
John was transferred to Mary Free Bed Rehabilitation Hospital where Dr. Sam Ho says eating, sleeping, and exercising was a full-time job for John. His physical therapist Ben and several other staff members worked hard to help get John back in shape. It wasn't easy work, but John pushed through.
"I think you have to have three things: a strong faith, a strong family, and you also have to have a will to get the Hell out of there. And I think I had all three of those in spades, so I was determined to get out," he said.
John acknowledges that many people in his position don't recover nearly as well, a sentiment that Dr. Ho echoed.
"When he walked out from the hospital, you can see that he didn't have much, if any, meat left when he walked out. His body just kind of stopped and wasted away, so he was really a miracle. Coming out from what he was like to what he is now, it's not his time [to die]," he said.
John left Mary Free Bed in August of 2023. He was on disability until the middle of October, and he didn't feel like he was back to "some sort of normalcy" until Christmas time.
"I've got some neuropathy in my left foot. It doesn't keep me from doing anything, but you notice it. My hands and my wrists are sore and tight a lot. So from that perspective, I'll probably never be 100%. I'll probably stay at about 95%, which I think I am now," he said.
The one-year anniversary of John being admitted to the hospital is coming up on June 10, and John is going back to Las Vegas for that same work trip. He says the odds of the same thing happening again are very slim, and he's not going to let his near-tragedy stop him from living life. Instead, he plans to use his second chance as a way to inspire other people going through hard times.
"No matter what you're going through in life there, there's hope. There's a way through. It doesn't have to be health. It could be relationships. It could be something with your family. It could be work, but there's always a positive. There's always a way through. You just have to have faith. Whatever you believe in, belief in a higher power is something to be thankful for," he said.
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