My mom, who has moderate dementia and Parkinsons started showing strong signs of UTI (fever, severe confusion, weakness, strong urine smell) so I took her to ER and she definitely has a UTI. They admitted her and started fluids and antibiotics. The next morning the doctor at the hospital came to speak with me and said she has a blood infection (sepsis) and "it's the bad kind" as he put it, gram-negative bacteria. He said they are going to continue antibiotics and fluid and she seems stable now. When I asked if she could die from it he just said he wants to concentrate on clearing up the UTI first in hopes that will help. She still has a fever but the nurses said it has gone down a couple points. Not sure what to think about all of this and wondered if anyone out there has had a similar experience. I just want to be prepared and also want to make certain I give other family members who are out of state some notice.
I'm sorry. Some people do have life long complications if they survive Sepsis. At least he did get a little better.Did the place he was staying at discharge him while he was in the hospital.
Great your father pulled through, did he have any organ damage due to the disease?
What worries me more is the diagnosis of a gram negative bacteria. Without going into all the medical mumbo jumbo here, I will try to explain what this means. Gram negative bacteria occur in nature...all over the world. One example of a gram negative bacteria that most people have heard of is E. coli but there are many many more. Urinary tract infections can be caused by gram negative bacteria and when they are they are known as "complicated urinary tract infections" because they tend to stick around and are hard to treat.
The important thing about gram negative bacteria is that they have this very strong cell membrane...think of it like a shield around the bacteria. This shield makes them immune to certain classes of antibiotics...but the good news is that there are two classes of antibiotics that are very good at killing these bacteria. You may recognize these antibiotics as the "-mycin" suffix drugs. While this all sounds like good news, there is one catch.
Once a gram negative bacteria gets into the circulatory system (blood stream for example) they have this unique ability to create endotoxic shock. What that means is that the combination of fever, low blood pressure and low respiration caused by the blood infection can be instantly and quickly fatal.
So that's the medical breakdown of what's happening here. Your mom is in the best place she can be to solve this problem. I'm sure they are pumping her full of the antibiotics needed to treat this infection. Keep your eye on her blood pressure and temperature to avoid the shock syndrome. Also, since the antibiotics are very powerful, after this is over she may end up with C-diff or another digestive malady. Probiotics could be helpful in this case. Many prayers.
Angel
I did go into septic shock when my appendix burst last year and managed to survive although apparently the Drs did not think I would. Recovery is certainly a very long process and you must want to get better. Hope your mother recovers. It sounds a though she is receiving all the right treatments.
((Hug)))
My mom has been hospitalized with very bad UTIs in the past requiring infectious disease specialists to treat her
She pulled through but she has had 5 in the past 7 months
Friday mid-morning he was moved down to the ICU and that afternoon he passed.
His blood pressure plummeted and they could not get it back up, the sepsis was also damaging his organs.
I really hope your mother pulls through and is o.k., if you haven't yet and she is still clear headed go over an advanced directive. If her sepsis turns into septic shock you will need to know without a doubt what she does and does not want done.
My brother lives 3 hours away and even though he left as soon as I told him it wasn't looking good, he didn't make it in time. None of us thought something like this was going to happen, we were completely blindsided by the sepsis, my father has had UTIs in the past and nothing like this ever happened. I've read up on it since then, but at the time I had no idea how fast it can go bad, I still can't believe it.
Unfortunately the chances of that happening are slim, especially for older people. Even if she survives, she may have life long organ damage.
I know this, because this is what my Mom died from.