My sister and I had barely heard of it, until we lost our beloved mother because of it two years ago. The brutality of sepsis will haunt us for the rest of our lives. I thought you get old, go into a hospital or nursing home, get the inevitable hospital infection sepsis and die.
After all, hospitals and nursing homes are crawling with germs, right? Well fast forward to now, millions of deaths and many medical negligence cases later, the real truth is coming to light. I debate sepsis is an actual disease. Unlike heart disease, diabetes or cancer, sepsis is usually the result of something else, like a cut or scrape, surgeries or invasive devices. We are all at risk.
Sepsis is a dire emergency that can kill the young or the old. It does not discriminate. In early , mama had a blood clot surgically removed from the femoral artery. She seemed to recover well, but the wound incision leaked nonstop. Soon she complained of extreme weakness, had sporadic fevers and could not urinate. After one week of hospitalization, a large, grotesque abscess was found at the surgical site on her left groin. Incision and drainage was done; it was all that was done.
Her underlying flesh and muscle were exposed. It was a brutal death for such a beautiful person. With all the touted advances in medicine, sepsis still seems to be shrouded in ignorance and neglect; yes, neglect. Always identify someone who can accompany yourself or your loved one to act as an advocate.
Ask questions, demand answers. Learn the symptoms of sepsis. Flu-like symptoms, low grade or sporadic fevers, low body temperature, extreme lethargy, inability to urinate. Learn what tests can better indicate sepsis.
