I had sepsis in Aug., and spent a month and a half in the hosp and the nxt mo in a rehab nursing home type facility. Too much is done outpatient and caregivers are left uncertain and feeling guilty for not realizing it’s Sepsis, not chemo side effects. Medical field, especially onocology, needs to be more proactive about talking to caregivers and patients. He is still in hospital fighting, gram negative bacteria in stomach.

If his sister had not threatened them to get his status elevated to see a DR, he probably would have passed that night. The oncologist practice knows he has <.2 white blood cell count, and their answer is take him to ER where you can wait for hours with sick people. No, it was beginning of Sepsis, by 4 days later, we are in the ER. I (his wife) was guessing it’s from chemo. On Saturday after Labor Day chemo infusion, my husband had chills, extremely cold, low temperatures, and extremely wiped out. The oncologist practitioner spent time on chemo education but no one shared signs to look out for sepsis. My husband of 26 years is here in the hospital after 10 radiation treatments and one chemo treatment. Posted on Septemby CDC's Safe Healthcare Blog He’s a native of Chicago, currently living in Boston. When not writing, he works in property management. When she passed in 2012 of sepsis, he began a grueling work on his first non fiction offering, chronicling the last brutal months of her life in a soon to be released work, yet untitled. We don’t have to die of sepsis.įranchot, a writer of primarily fiction, put all of his work on hold when his mother became ill, at the time of a strange illness. Weinberg’s Best Health Resources on the Web. Look to great resources, such as the Sepsis Alliance, read their stories of hope and survival, and when the internet becomes overwhelming, turn to a great book by Dr. coli, pseudomonas aeruginosa, klebsiella, MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) and necrotizing fasciitis. Learn the names of certain germs and terms that are linked to sepsis – VRE (Vancomycin- resistant Enterococcus), E. It gives readings of white blood cell counts and red blood cell counts, platelets and hemoglobin. CBC (complete blood count) with differential.

Learn what tests can better indicate sepsis. Flu-like symptoms, low grade or sporadic fevers, low body temperature, extreme lethargy, inability to urinate. If you don’t get them, seek other opinions. Always identify someone who can accompany yourself or your loved one to act as an advocate. If we knew then what we know now, I wouldn’t be writing this. If there’s anything that my sister and I have taken from this devastating experience, it’s knowledge. With all the touted advances in medicine, sepsis still seems to be shrouded in ignorance and neglect yes, neglect. It was a brutal death for such a beautiful person. Her underlying flesh and muscle were exposed. At mama’s death on May 9, 2012, her left groin, lower left torso and thigh were eaten away. Incision and drainage was done it was all that was done. After one week of hospitalization, a large, grotesque abscess was found at the surgical site on her left groin. It wasn’t long before she was fighting for her life in a city hospital. Soon she complained of extreme weakness, had sporadic fevers and could not urinate. She seemed to recover well, but the wound incision leaked nonstop. In early 2012, mama had a blood clot surgically removed from the femoral artery. Sepsis is a dire emergency that can kill the young or the old. Unlike heart disease, diabetes or cancer, sepsis is usually the result of something else, like a cut or scrape, surgeries or invasive devices.

Well fast forward to now, millions of deaths and many medical negligence cases later, the real truth is coming to light. After all, hospitals and nursing homes are crawling with germs, right? I thought you get old, go into a hospital or nursing home, get the inevitable hospital infection (sepsis) and die.

When our grandmother died of sepsis at 84 years old, back in 1990, I assumed it was an old people’s disease. The brutality of sepsis will haunt us for the rest of our lives. My sister and I had barely heard of it, until we lost our beloved mother because of it two years ago. It’s one of the leading causes of death, particularly in hospitals, but most people have never heard of it.

Squeed real suicide