MARSHALL COUNTY, Iowa —

In early September, Barbara Peters felt off.

“I started getting, like, a flu bug,” the rural State Center resident said. “And I said, ‘Oh man, this gives me such a headache.’”

Daughter Nikki Stevenson said her mom didn’t really show many symptoms.

“She was kind of confused. I had talked to her on the phone that day that she went in and was seeing if she could watch my kids for me so I could work later,” Stevenson said. “She sounded fine.”

But she wasn’t fine.

One of Peters' other daughters, a nurse, told Peters she could go to the hospital with her or go by ambulance.

“I said, ‘No, I'm not going to waste my money to go to the doctor. It's a virus,'” Peters said.

She went to the emergency room. Then, she was sent to St. Luke’s in Cedar Rapids.

There, she lea

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