17 year–old Hanna West of Geneseo had never felt so sick in her life.

"I had a lot of chest pain and a fever and a bad cough," Hanna told News 25. "And then I couldn't walk very well. I got really weak."

That was a few days after she'd been to a doctoron October 23rd. He had told her to go home and rest, without doing any tests. Soon, Hanna was rushed to Children's Hospital in Peoria, where she's been ever since.

"They tubed her on the 7th day and she lost a lot of the oxygen in her blood and she was going downhill pretty fast," said Kelly West, Hanna's mother. "We didn't know if she was going to make it through that day."

Hanna had bacterial pneumonia, which had started as strep throat. Her body was struggling when she was hooked up to what the staff at Children's Hospital calls the ECMO machine.

"It stands for Extracorpeal Membrane Oxygenation," said Dr. Randy Fortuna. "It's essentially an artificial heart and artificial lungs. It's the most complex type of life–support system that we have."

Kelly West says the ECMO saved her daughter's life. After 6 days Hanna began to have energy. She even logged on to Facebook, where her friends had created a webpage devoted to supporting her.

"It's so nice for people to do that," said Hanna. "My cheerleading coach even comes up and stays the night in the chairs in the waiting room. And my friends, even though I don't remember some of them coming up."

Hanna is hoping to go home soon. She's the captain of the Geneseo cheerleading squad and the football team is wearing her initials on their helmets during the playoffs. If they win a state title she'll have two reasons to celebrate.