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An ordeal that nearly claimed Jowed Hadeed's life began with a simple cough.
Hadeed, 26, and his band, Eclectic Approach, had traveled from Seattle to Pullman to perform Aug. 28, right around the time that thousands of Washington State University students were becoming sick with what was believed to be H1N1 influenza, known as swine flu.
The Richland native started coughing a few days later. He soon came down with a fever and found himself waking up sweating.
Being a healthy young man, he shrugged it off, dropped $150 on various cold medicines, and tried to sing in a show in Seattle the following weekend. But by Sept. 5, he was so sick his band had to cancel what could have been a career-making gig opening for Jason Mraz the next day.
"It was a big show for us," Hadeed said.
Early in the morning of Sept. 5, Hadeed woke his girlfriend, Amber West, and asked her to take him to the emergency room.
He was admitted to Northwest Hospital in Seattle when doctors found his white blood cell count had dropped dangerously low. They tested him for HIV and other diseases. And they swabbed him for flu, but the test came back negative.
That left doctors stumped as to why Hadeed was getting sicker.
He said what he thought had been a cold turned into pneumonia, and his lungs started shutting down. Doctors put Hadeed on a respirator and then decided to medically induce a coma to save his life.
"He had a really bad fever," said West, who stayed by Hadeed's side during his hospitalization. "He was in a lot of pain and they couldn't give him any more medication because his white blood cell count was low. They were worried about his organs shutting down."
Eventually, another test showed Hadeed had contracted swine flu, but doctors weren't sure why he had become so sick.
West also had gotten the virus, but was only mildly ill.
"I had it, but had it just like everyone else in Pullman and got over it," she said.
West said doctors put Hadeed in an isolation room and required visitors to wear sterile gowns and masks connected to hoses so they wouldn't breathe in the virus.
During the time he was in a coma, family and friends gathered to pray for him. His band even wrote a song about the ordeal and recorded it in the hospital.
Hadeed said he remembers a little about the time he was in a coma -- he recalls his father, who works as a doctor at Kadlec Regional Medical Center, talking to him and encouraging him to get better.
He also remembers hallucinating. His mind is filled with images of shouting for attention or getting out of his hospital bed and throwing things because no one would listen.
"It was all in my head," he said.
At one point, he saw a white light and thought he was dying. He learned later that doctors said he'd had a 10 percent to 15 percent chance of surviving, and his mother had called a priest to give him last rites.
But Hadeed beat the odds and woke from his coma.
Two weeks later, he and West had returned to the Tri-Cities where he could recuperate surrounded by family.
He faces several months of rehabilitation and worries about what will happen to his bandmates in the meantime. The band formerly was based out of the Tri-Cities, where the musicians worked day jobs and played gigs when they could.
They took the plunge and moved to Seattle to play music full time about a year and a half ago.
"This is my job full time," said Hadeed, who is the band's lead singer. "I am self-employed and four other people rely on me for income and food and rent. We had $10,000 in shows lined up to fund our third album. Now I can't sing for a month. We're jobless. There's no money coming in."
Some of the band members have traveled to the Tri-Cities with Hadeed. Others have found temporary jobs elsewhere until Eclectic Approach's rising career can get back on track, he said.
In the meantime, Jack-sons Sports Bar in Kennewick will be the venue for a benefit concert at 8 p.m. tonight to raise money for the band. Admission is $10 at the door.
