When Eric Gautreaux signed up for his first Ironman Triathlon in Panama City Beach, Florida, in 2005, he was 29 and entering uncharted territory.
“It was a novel competition for me,” said Eric, now 49. “That’s what made it appealing. I may be slow, but I can go all day. It’s one foot in front of the other, and keep going.”
He feels strongest during the 2.4-mile swim and 112-mile bike portions of the race. The final 26.2-mile running component? He contends he’s “far from an elite runner, and still am.”
Seven Ironman finisher medals have hung around his neck. He earned his most recent medal in 2019 at Lake Placid in New York.
One could argue that in 2023, Eric completed a different sort of Ironman, a grueling health ordeal that required him to keep going and going.
First, he had to be hospitalized for several days at UCHealth Yampa Valley Medical Center where he was diagnosed with sepsis and liver disease. Then doctors transferred him for 10 days of care at UCHealth Medical Center of the Rockies for sepsis, liver failure and kidney failure, and finally, 22 days at UCHealth University of Colorado Hospital, where Eric underwent an emergency craniotomy and subsequent recovery.
And rather than a finisher’s medal after all of that, in April 2026, Eric added the removal of not one, but three abdominal hernias to his challenging healthcare experiences. His team of emergency medicine physicians, hospitalists, anesthesiologists, hematologists, surgeons and countless support staff cheered him on throughout the ordeal, but none as loudly as his wife of 23 years, Christine, 48, and their sons, Abbott, 18, and Preston, 15.
Building a life and starting a family in Colorado’s mountains
Eric and Christine grew up in Dallas, but after visiting the mountains in Colorado following their college graduations, they moved to the Yampa Valley in 2000.
“We love the mountain way of life,” Christine said. “We’ve found our place in the community. Our boys were born here. Steamboat is a small town, yet we have access to a really nice facility.
“It’s like Cheers, ‘where everyone knows your name.’ From the lab to CT scans or when you walk in for an appointment, they know you,” Eric said. “When the hospital flirted with the idea of joining UCHealth, we didn’t know if something like that might really change our entire town. It did – it made the town better.”
Eric and Christine both eventually landed jobs with the Steamboat Springs School District. Christine worked as a kindergarten, first grade and special education teacher over the years, while Eric worked with students who needed moderate to significant educational support.
“It takes patience and advocacy,” Eric said. “There’s so much more behind every interaction. It’s acknowledging there’s a disability, taking that into consideration when there are behavioral concerns, and making sure the student and the parents get the support they need.”
Christine said her husband has a great talent for supporting kids at schools.
Meanwhile, the mountains that drew Eric and Christine to Steamboat Springs provided the perfect playground for their family.
“We’ve tackled nine 14ers so far,” Eric said. “This is the best place to raise kids.”
Abbott said he’s incredibly close with his dad.
“We’re pretty tight,” Abbott said. “We joke. We’re serious. We have a great relationship overall, except when he tells me to make up my room 12 times a day. He helped me get to the point I am right now, heading to college to play two sports. He’s the best part of my life.”
From an infection to sepsis to liver and kidney failure
With the whole family either attending schools or working in them, it’s no surprise that each member of the Gautreaux family took their turn at getting sick during 2023. In late March, both Abbott and Preston developed strep throat.
“Kids bounce back pretty quickly,” Christine said. “They felt like themselves and were back to school after a few days.”
When Eric developed a high fever, the family initially wondered whether he had contracted the same infection. But his fever didn’t recede, and he started having chills, some confusion and even some slurred speech.
Eric eventually went to the emergency department at Yampa Valley Medical Center. Unfortunately, he declined rapidly, and doctors diagnosed him with sepsis, a life-threatening condition that happens when the body’s immune system has an extreme response to an infection, causing organ dysfunction.
Doctors also diagnosed Eric with liver cirrhosis. His mother had dealt with a liver disease, which ultimately led to her having a liver transplant.
“Her transplant, and her life before and after transplant, definitely came to the minds of everyone in our family with my diagnosis,” Eric said. “They do believe there may be a genetic component involved.”
Eric’s medical team treated the sepsis and discharged Eric home with a peripherally inserted central catheter, or PICC line, to continue IV antibiotics. But in the days that followed, his liver, kidney and hemoglobin lab values continued to decline. He was in and out of the hospital over the next week.
“Here was a seemingly healthy Steamboat resident, enjoying all the town has to offer, and he’s hit with major medical issues and hospitalizations,” said Dr. Evan Hardesty, a hospitalist who, along with Dr. Gary Breen, cared for Eric. “He was at a stage of life where his focus was on making family memories and enjoying life, but everything got completely derailed.”
During Eric’s inpatient stays, Hardesty often consulted with specialists throughout UCHealth’s network of hospitals via DocLine to ensure he was getting the necessary level of care.
“In situations where we don’t have a local specialist available, we have access to specialists throughout UCHealth,” Hardesty said. “That gives patients the assurance that when they walk through our doors, we will either address their needs locally, or we will speak to the right people and if necessary, transport to a higher level of care.”
That right person was Dr. James Burton, medical director of liver transplantation at University of Colorado Hospital.
“Eric had serious decompensation of his liver disease – jaundice, dangerously low sodium levels, fluid buildup in his abdomen (ascites) and confusion from hepatic encephalopathy, a complication of advanced liver disease,” Burton said.
Fast-forward to mid-April. With his health again declining, Eric’s medical team had to transfer him by air to Medical Center of the Rockies in Loveland. His cirrhosis had severely decompensated; he had developed kidney failure, and once again, he was septic.
“When I got to Medical Center of the Rockies, my liver MELD (Model for End-stage Liver Disease) score was 39, which indicated extremely severe liver disease and high risk of short-term mortality,” Eric said later. “I was also told, ‘If we don’t see improvement in the next 48 hours, there’s nothing more we’re able to do.’”
“We had a palliative care consultation,” Christine said. “It was that serious.”
But after the first night, all of Eric’s organs showed slow improvement. He continued improving over the next 10 days. According to Eric, his care team was “cautiously optimistic.”
Eric improved enough to return home to Steamboat. But things still didn’t seem right. Eric and Christine made an appointment for July 17 to have a liver transplant evaluation with Burton.
What doctors discovered before a scheduled liver transplant evaluation
On July 16, Eric and Christine were preparing to drive to University of Colorado Hospital on the Anschutz Campus in Aurora. But Eric couldn’t get off the floor.
“I knew something was really bad,” Abbott said, “something wasn’t right with his body. I remember the conversation with my mom. It was either drive to Anschutz at that moment or go to the ER in Steamboat immediately because he couldn’t even stand up. I thought it was a stroke.”
Abbott and Christine got Eric in the car and raced to the hospital’s emergency department.
“It turns out we made the right decision to take him to the ER because he had a brain bleed,” Abbott said.
“Eric presented with clear unilateral weakness, raising immediate concern for a stroke or other neurological emergency. He was taken directly for a CT scan and within minutes of returning from imaging, he was accessed by a neurologist via telestroke technology,” said Dr. Laura Sehnert, the emergency medicine physician at Yampa Valley Medical Center who cared for Eric.
Doctors discovered a large subdural hematoma with a midline shift in Eric’s brain, which meant blood was pooling and pushing his brain tissue off center.
“We immediately put plans in motion to fly him to University of Colorado Hospital, where preparations for emergency surgery were already under way,” Sehnert said. “That rapid coordination between our local team, the flight team and the receiving surgical team was critical. It’s what gave Eric the best possible opportunity for a positive outcome.”
Dr. A. Samy Yousseff led the surgical team and performed an emergency craniotomy.
“I remember getting the call while driving to Aurora: ‘We got him,’” Christine said. “It mattered a lot that they took a brief moment to call and tell me that.”
Abbott said his dad’s medical crisis was very scary.
“It’s super stressful when your own father is flown out because something is wrong with his brain. My mom, brother and I talked out all scenarios just in case the worst-case scenario happened,” Abbott said. “We were still driving on I-70 when we got the call that everything was successful.”
‘Grateful as hell:’ Family support helps fuel recovery after a medical crisis
Christine, Abbott and Preston made their way to the neurology ICU when they arrived at University of Colorado Hospital.
“A lot of kids and adults, thankfully, don’t ever see a neuro ICU,” Christine said. “It was hard, but we knew Eric was in the best hands.”
Abbott said he was “grateful as hell” rather than being in shock.
“It’s no joke on that floor,” Abbott said. “My dad’s head was half shaved with stitches all over. Thank God for all the nurses and surgeons. I don’t know what we would have done without them.”
Christine appreciated the attentive care from the full medical team, including experts in Steamboat Springs who continued to check on Eric and his family.
“With so much going on, sometimes we forget about the toll it takes on family members, so if we can provide any support to them through the medical process, it can be really beneficial for all,” Hardesty said. “I think the surprise and gravity of the situation and the more frequent visits and hospitalizations probably brought us all closer faster than a typical patient-provider relationship. Watching them all interact and seeing how much they cared for each other made me want to help keep that going in any way I could. Maintaining that strong family bond and support system can be really important for a patient’s mental health.”
Eric focused on rehabilitation with “more amazing and kind medical professionals.” After more than 20 days in the hospital – including Eric and Christine’s 20th wedding anniversary — doctors discharged him. He concentrated on recovery through medication management and diet, gained his strength back and returned to the active lifestyle he loved.
Doctors eventually evaluated Eric for a liver transplant, but his liver function improved enough that he didn’t require placement on the liver transplant waiting list, something Burton says is “a testament to his dedication to his health.”
But three years later, three abdominal hernias reared their ugly heads.
A multidisciplinary team tackles three complex hernia repairs
“I didn’t think they were going to be able to touch them,” Eric said of the hernias. “My liver had gotten better, and I was otherwise doing well. Don’t mess with a good thing, right? But Dr. Burton said there was a surgeon, Dr. Paul Montero, who was willing to repair one, maybe two of them. We didn’t know if repairing all three was possible.”
Again, the triple challenge of an Ironman competition enters the picture.
“Every decision we make in the operating room incorporates a balance of risks and benefits,” Montero said. “Given that his right inguinal hernia was making him fairly miserable, that was the target hernia to address. If that part of the case went well, and there were not clinical bleeding conditions, I would consider repairing the umbilical (belly button) hernia, and if that one went well, I would consider repairing the epigastric hernia.”
Burton said the team’s extensive work in advance of the surgery proved critical.
“As his hepatologist, the key to making all three repairs possible was extensive preoperative optimization,” Burton said. “We looked at his liver and kidney function, ensured his ascites was well controlled, coordinated closely with the surgical and anesthesia teams, and had contingency plans in place for complications. Eric’s overall stability during the surgery is what allowed Dr. Montero to proceed.”
After surgery, the hepatology and surgical teams monitored Eric closely for what’s known as hepatic decompensation and other postoperative complications.
“When I first met Eric, I thought he was a very kind gentleman. I was almost overwhelmed with his sense of positivity,” Montero said. “Learning he was a special education teacher and ultra-marathoner, it made sense that his positivity is what fuels these awesome achievements. A positive attitude contributes greatly to one’s health.”
A survivor’s outlook: ‘I don’t have to do this. I get to do this.’
In so many areas of life, attitude can make or break what is in front of you.
“My mantra going into races is, ‘I don’t have to do this. I get to do this,’” Eric said. “As a Christian, I tell myself, ‘I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.’ As I baby-stepped my way into these events, I always told myself adversity is a privilege.”
The number of health challenges Eric faced in three years is more than most people experience in a lifetime. Yet, every day, he stayed positive.
Abbott praised his dad’s great attitude.
“Even during rough times like these, he still has the same energy,” Abbott said. “What my dad went through made me appreciate family just a little more. Take nothing for granted and enjoy what’s in front of you. He really is the G.O.A.T. (greatest of all time).”
This fall, it’s back to school for everyone. Eric and Christine will continue working for Colorado Connections Academy in special education. Preston will begin his sophomore year at Steamboat Springs High School with a tennis racket firmly in his hand. Abbott will head to college at Adams State University in Alamosa, Colorado.
The family will celebrate Eric’s 50th birthday in October, possibly capping off his half-century year with the 50-mile Run Rabbit Run ultramarathon in September 2027.
“I’m glad I have my hiking partner back, which is a credit to literally everyone who cared for Eric,” Christine said. “Not only were they incredibly talented, competent and confident in their work, they remembered parts about our lives and our kids, details from stories we shared. It’s a level of care we never knew we’d experience.”
“Our small town got me access to the best medical facility, meals showed up at our house, students called and checked on me,” Eric said. “When we moved to Steamboat, we knew it was a great community. We just didn’t know to what extent it was great until we went through this.”