Maria Rita Taunay

Survivor

On June 22, 2012, I took my baby for his 1-month check-up. I only saw later that I actually wrote in my calendar: “Felt very nauseous and legs wobbly after we left the doctor’s.” (Sepsis and Pregnancy & Childbirth)

The next few days I had pains all over my body. Still expecting it to be the flu, and my husband would tell me, “Just take the pain killers.” (It had been an emergency c-section and I was finding it hard to recover, but nobody considered it abnormal.)

On Wednesday night, June 27th, I was very, very cold, with a lot of aches and pains. On Friday morning, June 29th, I couldn’t get out of bed for so much pain. I called my ObGyn and at noon put my infant baby in sling, took my 6-year-old to a friend’s (was unable to get out of cab- and asked cab driver to turn off air-conditioning, because I was shuddering and teeth were chattering- but AC wasn’t on…) and actually walked into ObGyn building (asked doorman for support).

When I arrived at Ob-Gyn, I was almost screaming from pain and begging people for help (mind confusion, delirium etc) and threw up. He called an E.R. doctor he trusted who said I had to go straight to hospital. My husband arrived in the meantime. They told me to take a cab but I was unable to stand. Still with baby in sling, I was wheeled out of building, screaming in pain.

Twenty minutes in the cab, screaming in pain, saying “God help me!” When we arrived at the hospital, I was in septic shock. My urine was dark brown. I was completely dehydrated.

After a few days my infection, which had initially been controlled, hadn’t yielded and was growing. They did an exploratory surgery and found a “can-full” of pus in my pelvis, and had to remove one of my fallopian tubes and most of my left ovary. Five days in ICU, my lungs went “white,” an oxygen mask, 19 days total. I had almost 30 x-rays taken last year (about 25 during hospital stay), some days my blood taken twice a day from each arm. I needed physical therapy to get up and walk again.

After I left the hospital, the E.R. doctor who became my personal doctor told me it was MUCH more serious than I would have known. But luckily, he recognized the symptoms as soon as I got there, and barely (for 15 minutes) saved me.

Although a completely normal life would be expected (by others), I have had, in the past year, 3 pneumonias, 2 sinus infections, 2 bladder infections and ongoing impetigo. I’m very tired but that could be attributed to raising a baby and kid. The happy news was that the baby relactated a few days after I left hospital (and had serious rashes in the beginning, since I was so toxic- although I respected the 2 days they told me to wait). (Sepsis and Post-Sepsis Syndrome)

Strangely, I was told they were unable to define the bacteria with biopsy. I have a feeling that might have more to do with corporatism to protect the maternity, where I probably caught the infection in the first place with infected surgical instruments. The cause and the bacteria were never officially found.

Maria_Rita_Taunay1My doctor told me later, right out, that my luck had been to go to that hospital at that moment, with him (who had been warned by my Ob/Gyn about a patient who wasn’t well). He said if I had gone elsewhere, my chances of surviving would have been practically nil, because of the now familiar fact (to me, to us involved in this) that, among other things (good hospitals; mine was excellent, work-related health insurance and I’m very grateful to them), people did not recognize sepsis in time. I’m mentioning this because I know this is such a serious issue!

Note from Sepsis Alliance: Maria’s story was our first submission from Brazil

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