Alana Basinger

A little while ago, we received a Faces of Sepsis submission from the mom of a young woman, Alana, who survived sepsis. A couple of days later, Alana submitted her story. So here we have the two:

Hello. I’m nineteen years old. I would like to share my story with everyone.

On March 15th at 1:30 a.m., I started having contractions. I went to the hospital and they sent me back home. I went back, and was in a lot of pain – 24 1/2 hours of labor.

My beautiful daughter was born March 16th at 2:02 a.m. After they finished sewing me up, my sweet girl had to get an IV in her head. The staff wanted to make sure she was okay since I was running a fever after she was born. The first time I laid eyes on her, I fell in love. It was the happiest moment of my life.

On March 17th, I was sent to ICU because I had Sepsis. By March 18th I was in critical care and early March 19th, they had me on a ventilator. (Sepsis and Pregnancy & Childbirth)

The doctors found the infection that day and I had surgery the 19th and again on the 20th. Sepsis messed up my lungs, kidney, and heart. They put me on the ventilator to rest my heart and lungs.

I was in ICU for 6 days. They said that there was a huge possibility that I might not make it. I had a tube going down my throat, and a tube in my nose.

It took me awhile to walk again. I thank God every day that I’m alive and well. I have the scars still and always will. I will always support sepsis. I understand what people are going through. I’m a TRUE survivor! GOD IS GOOD <3

By Robin Basinger (Alana’s mother)

My daughter, Alana, gave birth on March 16, 2012, March 17th, was admitted to ICU on the 18th, critical care. Early on the 19th, she was on a ventilator. They knew she had an infection but didn’t know where.

The staff told us Alana was septic and gave us no hope at all. It broke our heart that our child may not see her 19th birthday, which was a month away.

They found the infection on the 19th in Alana’s vagina and the doctors performed surgery. They did another surgery again on the 20th. They had her on several different antibiotics, which was hard because she’s allergic to Amoxil. She was also on 4 different blood pressure meds as her blood pressure was so low.

Alana was brought out from her induced coma on the 25th. They moved her to a regular room on the 26th and she was able to come home on the 29th. Its been 5 months and Alana and baby Emma are doing great! You just don’t ever think about when someone goes in for delivery that anything like this would ever happen. I thank GOD everyday for sparing her life.