Bernadine Reams
This is the story/testament of Bernie’s sickness and much of what happened over her 95 days being admitted into several hospitals. Bernie is a United State Air Force Retired Disabled veteran, with over 22 years of service.
The story begins with Bernie and me returning from a cruise in late October in 2011. We had a great time and she felt great, but her ear didn’t, which we assumed it was an ear infection. She went to the doctor the following day and she did have an ear infection, which was treated with antibiotics.
A couple of days later we planned a dinner with Garrett & Jr. and we all ate steak and had a great time. Bernie started to get a sore throat earlier that day but it was nothing to be alarmed about. After finishing dinner and “the two Garretts” went home, Bernie and I went to Walgreens to find an “over the counter” remedy for her sore throat. The many OTC medicines that we purchased gave her some relief, but nothing lasted. After a restless night and very little sleep, her throat was exponentially worse with an allergic reaction causing a rash to form on the lower half of her body.
At 4 AM, something told her to go the ER at that moment (we feel it was God) and not wait another moment. She remembers very vividly that exact moment. She couldn’t explain it but she felt like she was being pushed at that moment to go to the ER. After waking me, she threatened to call 911 if I wouldn’t take her at that moment to the hospital. Though normally going to the ER at 4 AM on a Sunday morning for a sore throat wouldn’t even be thought of, but this was completely different, she had to go at that moment.
Once arriving at the ER her blood pressure was 80 over 40. The tech thought the reading was inaccurate, readjusted the cuff, and took it again but this time it read 70 over 35. He then mentioned the machine must be broken and took her pressure “old school” with his stethoscope. Moments later he turned to the admitting nurse and said “it’s not the machine” and ran Bernie to a room.
The next blood pressure was taken and her blood pressure had dropped to 50/25 and chaos erupted in the room within seconds. The medical director of the ER and at least 4 nurses were in the room at one time working on her and asking what seemed like hundreds of questions. To add to the confusion, the on-call primary care doctor and another one were called in and arrived within the hour. The attending doctors asked over and over where we went on the cruise and if anything happened.
Amongst the chaos, they said she was very dehydrated and all her veins had collapsed. To overcome the issue with collapsed veins, the ER doctor surgically placed a “main line IV” into a major vein in her neck to facilitate the required amount of IVs needed to treat her. At some point, they drew labs during all the chaos in an attempt to diagnose her condition. With the IV line in place, the staff readied her to be transported to the ICU.
By the time she arrived at the ICU, they had diagnosed her condition as Septic Shock, which was caused by her existing conditions and an untreated raging urinary tract infection (UTI) that she was completely unaware of. (Sepsis and Urinary Tract Infections) With the diagnosis being sepsis, the doctors knew Bernie’s condition would rapidly get worse. With Bernie’s breathing being very labored, the staff chose to intubate before her lungs would fail. In addition, when she was intubated, the doctors also inserted a feeding tube since they knew she wouldn’t be able to feed herself.
Within five hours of getting to the ER, she was moved to the ICU, intubated (on a machine that completely breathed for her), had a feeding tube inserted, kidneys completely shut down, lungs filled up with fluid (which became ARDS), brain swelled from the fluid retention, her heart had failed (meds were keeping it pumping), and was literally dying. (Sepsis and ARDS) To treat her condition, the doctors had her on 14 different IV meds that included vasopressers (to help raise the blood pressure), which had to be maxed out just to keep her alive. In addition to everything that was going on, she was also put into a medically induced coma for 27 days to help her body fight the sickness.
To explain her condition, she had a total organ failure; nothing was working at on its own without assistance from a machine or meds. With her liver and kidneys shut down, none of the toxins in her blood could be removed from her body. With the toxins multiplying out of control, the doctors could only give more fluids and extra bags of blood. Her prognosis was grim at best and none of the doctors or nurses thought she was going to live past the first few days.
The first week of Bernie’s admission, her condition was very critical when she literally had daily struggles for her life. Excluding the Sunday when she was first admitted, the following Monday during the CAT scan was the closest she came to dying. To explain, her breathing was being maintained with a complex ventilator machine and to perform the scan they had to remove her from the machine and manually squeeze the bulb to breath for her. The ordeal was very taxing on her and she barely lived through the scan. The respiratory technician gave her account of the ordeal to us and stated that she never wants to go through something like that ever again. When Bernie came back from the scan, the nurses demanded that everyone in the room not make a sound, touch her, or in any way to stimulate her. They recommended that we should let her rest and go take a break from the chaos that surrounds the ICU.
Day 3: Extremely bloated and kidneys still shut down.
Bernie was getting constant fluids to fight sepsis and since her kidneys were shut down she was bloating very badly. The bloating was real noticeable in her stomach and also her hands where her knuckles weren’t even viewable. When touching her, she felt “puffy” everywhere over her entire body. The breathing machine was set very high and was completely breathing for her. Her blood pressure appeared good, but the vasopressers were maxed out and would be for 10 days straight. Her oxygen saturation was at 91%, which was great, since it often dropped into the low 80s with 100% oxygen.
In addition to all her other medical issues, her fingers and toes continued to progressively get worse. The doctors did try to help the circulation by putting nitroglycerine on them, but there wasn’t any noticeable difference. Bernie eventually lost her finger tips and all her toes were amputated. Thanks to our God, who kept her here with us and to all the doctors at Bay Select hospital and Gulf Coast Medical Center here in Panama City, Florida. Bernie is married to Robert and has 5 boys, three step sons and two biological sons.
Former Air Force master sergeant deals with loss of independence
Source: by Robert Reams (Bernadine's husband)
