Rosemary King, the wife of former Congressman Peter King,  woke up with stomach pain one morning, which progressed to a life or death situation within three days.

When Rosemary King’s discomfort persisted throughout the day on June 30, her doctor advised her to go to the hospital. Peter King drove his wife to North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset. Due to poor weather, the car ride from Seaford to Manhasset came to a standstill, as Rosemary’s pain became exponentially worse.

“It started to rain and my pain got excruciating,” Rosemary said. “And I’m pretty good at taking pain. I really don’t complain too much, but I was yelling, I was screaming, I was pleading for him to drive faster.”

Upon arrival, Rosemary was seen right away in the emergency room. She underwent several tests and was given medication for the pain. However, her situation became dire as her blood pressure started to nosedive.

“The next thing I know I was in the ICU unit,” Rosemary said.

Allison Cohen, an emergency medicine specialist, identified an inflamed gallbladder as the source of the problem. Transplant surgeon Gerardo Tamayo-Enriquez, a critical care expert, performed a procedure to remove it on July 2.

However, it did not go as planned and Tamayo had to convert the procedure from a minimally invasive laparoscopy to an open surgery. This was due to the extent of Rosemary’s internal trauma, which included inflammation, bleeding and surrounding tissue stuck to the organ. The liver also was out of place, making the gallbladder difficult to access.

If not addressed quickly, a fatal episode of gangrene or sepsis could have set in.

“They had to do a full operation and they found out that the gallbladder was indeed all diseased,” Rosemary said. “It was encroaching on my liver. They had to push my big intestines out of the way.”

The surgery ultimately was a success and Rosemary was released after seven days. She said she had great care from the nurses in the hospital. She was told not to get out of bed by herself and anytime she called a nurse to the room, they arrived “with a smile on their face.”

The Kings went back to Northwell on Aug. 14 to thank the doctors who prevented Rosemary’s situation from becoming potentially fatal.

“We couldn’t have asked for better care at Northwell,” the former congressman aid.

“When I saw Dr. Cohen, she came over and gave me a hug,” Rosemary said. “And when I saw the critical care surgeon who did the operation, he just smiled at me and I thought, ‘Gee, I should be the one smiling at you for what you did for me’.”

Rosemary is slowly working her way back to her active lifestyle. She is cooking, cleaning, and driving, but said she gets tired easily.

She is an avid walker, but hasn’t gone back to her daily three-mile walks yet. She also is a watercolor painter and does pottery, but she has not resumed those activities.

“Those are going to have to be things that gradually come back,” Rosemary said. “So I’m just going to take it slow.”