Doctors were stumped by her illness for 10 years. A bathroom contractor solved it in one visit.

For nearly a decade, Kathi Wilson battled symptoms that slowly took over her life—fatigue, muscle pain, and a constant sense of malaise that no doctor could explain. By 2018, she needed a cane just to walk. The simplest daily tasks had become exhausting.

She had undergone test after test, from MRIs to chest x-rays and cardiac screenings. Multiple doctors, medications, and diagnoses came and went, but none brought answers.

“I felt like an 80-year-old stuck in the body of a 40-year-old,” Wilson told ABC News.

Woman feeling illCanva

Her daughter, Ashley, described watching her mother's condition decline over the years. “Over the years, it kept getting worse and worse,” she said. Doctors were baffled. One of them, Dr. Mary Beth Hensley, shared that they'd been thorough in their efforts:

“[She had] cardiac testing, chest x-rays, MRIs [of] the brain, the spine, to see if something was related. I felt we were very thorough, but didn’t come up with a solution.”
— Dr. Mary Beth Hensley

Then, a contractor came to fix her bathroom—and uncovered the answer doctors never could.

Woman discussing the bathroom remodel with her contractorCanva

While remodeling the bathroom in Wilson’s home in Indiana, workers discovered that both the furnace and water heater had been improperly installed. They were leaking carbon monoxide, a colorless, odorless gas that’s extremely dangerous, especially in enclosed spaces.

Contractor Michael Evans, who made the discovery, told Inside Edition: “The family was slowly being poisoned. This is the first time I have ever seen this.”

Carbon monoxide detectorCanva

It all started to make sense. Wilson had felt worse when spending more time at home. The symptoms (fatigue, dizziness, infections, shortness of breath) matched what’s commonly seen in chronic carbon monoxide poisoning. Though the home had a carbon monoxide detector, it hadn’t picked up the leak, possibly due to how the gas was being vented.

“The more I stayed at home, the sicker I felt,” Wilson said.

After the leak was fixed, her health began to improve. The symptoms that had plagued her for years started to fade. Her energy returned. So did her ability to move more freely and live her life again.

Woman on beach feeling healthyCanva

“I feel like I have been given my life back,” she said. “I feel great. I haven’t been this happy in I can’t tell how long.”

Her story has sparked discussion online about the importance of carbon monoxide safety and how even well-meaning attempts to monitor it, like having a detector, aren’t always enough if a leak is hidden or improperly vented.

It took a remodeling project—not a medical breakthrough—to uncover the truth. And for Kathi Wilson, it changed everything.

- YouTubewww.youtube.com

This article originally appeared earlier this year.