Lillie De Gree

I live in the Los Angeles area, three hours behind Reston, VA. In October 2012, when my phone rang at 6 am from VA, I knew something was wrong. My 73-year-old mother had woken up in the middle of the night, vomiting, and was babbling incoherently. She was in the ICU. I flew in immediately to be with her, my father and my brother.

All the tests were negative, but my mother had a high white count, and there was no evidence of a stroke. They took her out of ICU, and I demanded that she go back. She was clearly impaired and was unable to even push her ringer to call for help. The doctor ignored me. We refused to leave her side. I slept on the chair next to her bed. At 1:00 am, she gasped, “I can’t breath.” She was having an asthma attack, and she was coding. I demanded that she return to ICU immediately, knowing that if I had not heard her, she would not have made it through the night.

My mother was diagnosed with sepsis resulting from an undiagnosed urinary tract infection. (Sepsis and Urinary Tract Infections) She spent a month in ICU, two in a regular room. She was discharged to a rehabilitative facility where she spent another 2 1/2 weeks before returning home. Since that time she has cognitive impairments, low energy, difficulty walking, and confusion.

She has improved a great deal, but she is definitely impaired, and someone has to be with her several hours a day four times a week while my dad is at work. (Sepsis and Post-Sepsis Syndrome) It is still very scary. She is a survivor, and we have since learned about the deadly nature of the sepsis infection. We are lucky, and thankful that she even survived.

Source: by Delaina A. Martinez (Lillie's daughter)