Doug Monroe

I went into septic shock in February after contracting the superbug C. difficile (Sepsis and C. Difficile). I was taken by ambulance from the small hospital in Milledgeville, Georgia, to Piedmont Hospital in Atlanta. By the time I arrived, I was in kidney failure and my white blood cell count had soared to 59,000. (It’s supposed to be around 10,000). Sepsis is the body’s toxic response to infection. Septic shock means infection is rampant, systems are shutting down and death is near.

I had about a 30 percent chance of living through that night. I am eternally grateful to the doctors at Piedmont for saving my life. They poured antibiotics and steroids into a vein in my neck. They warned me I could get a blood clot from that, and I did, about two weeks after I was released. It was a gigantic clot, extending from my neck to my elbow. I went back to Piedmont, where Dr. Charles Ross performed the EKOS procedure by inserting a pulsating infusion catheter into the vein. That stayed in for two days and I was released to home care. After three months on Xarelto, the clot had cleared.

Six months later, I realize that recovering from septic shock is a long, difficult journey, which I’m most fortunate to be making. The recovery is similar to PTSD. (Sepsis and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder) I am a 68-year-old male and now I am dealing with more issues, including a compression fracture in a vertebrae. I have very little energy. Importantly, I want to point out that an awful lot of people are getting these infections. Once you get into septic shock, time is of the essence, especially if you live alone. If diagnosed within the hour, your survival changes are 50 percent; after 8 hours, survival chances plunge to 30 percent. I wasn’t diagnosed with septic shock until I got to Piedmont, at least 8 hours after I was admitted in Milledgeville, where they thought I had flu or pneumonia. Clearly, not all doctors even check for it.