Master Officer Tyrone Williams knows he shouldn’t be here — not after a bout with Legionnaires’ Disease that plunged him into a coma for two weeks, temporarily robbing him of the ability to walk, and his career as a State Transport Police officer. Instead, Williams bounced back stronger and more resilient than before.
“I don’t know what God has for me yet,” Williams said, more than two years after his remarkable comeback. “But He wasn’t done with me.”
In November 2022, while preparing to leave his house for work one afternoon, Williams fainted face-first in his doorway. His 10-year-old daughter called for help, but after being rushed to an urgent care center, he was sent home to recover. The next day, he visited his doctor.
“When she stuck the stick down my throat, I coughed and blood came up,” Williams said.
Williams’ physician insisted he go to a local hospital, where doctors diagnosed him with pneumonia, sepsis, and kidney failure. Still, his condition worsened and his symptoms left doctors perplexed.
“My fiancé sat down beside my bed and started crying,” Williams recalled. “I took my oxygen mask off and asked her, ‘Baby, am I dying?’ She said no, but I was. If she had told me the truth, she knew I wouldn’t have fought.”
Later that day, Williams slipped into a coma. He was placed on life support and airlifted to the Medical University of South Carolina, where he underwent emergency surgery.
While Williams was in a coma, an infectious disease expert diagnosed him with Legionnaire’s Disease, a serious type of pneumonia. The bacteria that causes Legionnaires’ is found naturally in springs and soil, but it can also contaminate drinking water and air systems. Williams was one of more than a dozen people in Darlington County who mysteriously contracted the disease that fall.
Williams remembers multiple out-of-body experiences that he could only describe as supernatural.
“They say you can hear people when you’re in a coma,” he said. “I kept hearing my little girl telling me to fight.”
Even after Williams woke from his coma on November 21, 2022, he thought it was all a dream.
“The only thing I could do was cry,” he said of waking from his coma. “When I woke up, it still felt like a dream. It was like I was the miracle, because I was supposed to die.”
The disease left lasting damage in its wake. After two weeks of taking in nothing but IV fluids, Williams had not only lost more than 100 pounds, but also the ability to walk, eat, and other basic functions. He said he had to rely heavily on his family and extended work family.
“My colonel, major, captain, and lieutenant came to see me at the hospital during this time, even though I didn’t know they were there,” he said. “When the colonel himself comes to your house and your hospital bed, that says a lot.”
STP officers also brought gifts to Williams’ house so his kids could celebrate Christmas that year. “That’s one thing for which I can never pay them back,” he said.
Williams knew the road to recovery would be a long, uphill battle—but his gratitude to be alive outweighed the odds against him. Through months of physical and occupational therapy, Williams slowly regained his strength and practiced walking on his own again. The humbling experience gave him a deeper appreciation for the motor skills that he said are easy to take for granted. It also strengthened his dedication to return to work.
“When that physical therapist asked me to do something, I did it twice as hard as she told me to,” Williams said. “Working with STP, we have 50-pound scales we use every day. So we worked until I was able to lift 60 pounds with each hand.”
Williams still wrestles with the lingering physical effects of the ordeal. His doctor tells him at 44 years old, he has the lungs of someone in their 70s.
“You’ve also got the mental aspect of it, from almost dying,” Williams explained. “During my recovery, I was scared to go to sleep — because the last time I did, I was asleep for a long time. So I still don’t sleep much.”
Williams’ hard work and resolve paid off after he returned to work in early March of 2023. Despite missing much of the first quarter, he put his head down and got to work, ultimately ending the year with the highest activity for his region, earning him the Region 5 STP Officer of the Year award in 2023 and making him a finalist for the statewide STP Officer of the Year award.
Today, Williams has a new outlook on life and strives to become a better person each day.
“You’ve got to keep fighting and don’t give up,” he said. “Because once you give up on yourself, that’s it. As long as you’ve got somebody in your corner that’s going to support you and keep pushing you, keep pushing yourself.”
