Heather Danaher

Survivor

On the morning of July 6th, 2016, I received a phone call from our 13-year-old daughter. Heather was unresponsive to our children’s attempts to wake her and she was making strange noises. I could tell from the noise, she was struggling to breathe and I rushed home.

Heather would spend the next 4 days in ICU at Saline Memorial Hospital in our home town of Benton, AR. The culprit had been a severely infected gall bladder that she would have removed two days later. Her doctors at the hospital were very concerned about her throughout the entire stay because they had informed us that they had never witnessed someone with her vitals and levels upon admission, survive. She was diagnosed with severe sepsis with septic shock. Her kidneys were on the verge of shutting down, her liver almost quit, and the stress she endured produced similar cardiac effects of a minor heart attack.

After a total of 8 days, we were sent home with prescriptions and honestly, not much else. I will always be grateful to the team of doctors that saved Heather’s life, however, I will never accept the fact that we were discharged and nothing was ever mentioned about post sepsis syndrome or even the possibility of secondary issues resulting from sepsis.

Three weeks after Heather had been discharged from the hospital for sepsis, she began to act very strange. She was stumbling, confused, delusional, minor speech problems, and not herself. These changes at this time were only minor at most but changes no less. I immediately returned to her the ER at the same hospital as before and they proceeded to dismiss any connection to sepsis and diagnosed her with vertigo. I was not very happy about it but there were supposedly no indications of any stroke or other issues. Four days later on August 10th, 2016 things hit a level of “crazy” (I do not like to refer to it this way but do not know how else I can) that was witnessed by my mother, our children, and a friend of mine. Heather was confused, severely delusional, hallucinating, and acting like nothing was wrong all at the same time. It was so bad that I pulled out my phone to video her behavior so I could make sure the doctors would believe me. This time I elected to take her to a different hospital and she was admitted that night.

Test after test was run trying to figure out what was going on with her. Neurologists, infectious disease, and even psychiatry would become involved. MRIs, CT scans, Spinal taps, blood, blood, and more blood would be drawn, and nothing was sticking. Meanwhile, Heather continued to deteriorate. After 5 days the medical doctors could find absolutely nothing to associate her behavior with and turned her over to the psychiatry unit. WORST decision that could have ever been made. She crashed and 4 days later she was back in ICU and they were back to square one. I had hit my breaking point with everything.

The doctors had no explanation for what was going on and continued to dismiss the concept of PSS so we requested a transfer to another hospital. Only 24 hours before this occurred a neurologist we had not previously seen, came on-call. Dr. Pellagrino determined that Heather was suffering from a rare neurological auto immune disease, acute demylinating encephalomyelitis or ADEM, which was caused by the battle with sepsis. (Sepsis and Autoimmune Diseases) The antibodies in her blood that were produced to fight off the sepsis infection have settled in her brain and attacked the myelin. Myelin is the protective covering of the nerve fibers in your brain. If the myelin is damaged, then the signals your brain generates to tell your entire body to do anything, do not make their way to their destination.

heather-d2Fifty-six days later, Heather was released from the hospital and is continuing to recover and rehabilitate from this. She’s IMG_20150912_092615had to relearn to walk, talk, eat, use the restroom, and a multitude of other skills. All because of the sepsis, our families, my kids, and I have had to endure seeing someone we love in ways no one ever wants to or should. Do your research, don’t take it for granted, and never overlook even the smallest of things when it comes to fighting and recovering from sepsis. If I could ever help someone dealing with this I will gladly and without a doubt.

 

Source: Brian Danaher (Heather's husband)

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