Nouria Dabish
My grandmother has always been ill. She had congestive heart failure (CHF), chronic kidney disease, diabetes, and more. Even with all of these illnesses she was able to get around and do normal everyday things just like anybody else. She only used a walker.
My family is quite close so we would also help her out when she needed it. In December of 2010 she went into the hospital because of excess water in and around her heart and lungs. Her heart ended up stopping and they had to resuscitate. She ended up being okay; she left the hospital and spent Christmas with us and everything. For about a week she would complain of being cold and would wear her jacket inside, this was not normal for her because she was someone who was always hot. So we took her to the doctor and he gave her antibiotics. Another week went by and she still said she felt like she had a cold. She lives next door to me, so one night at 4:00am I woke up to my mom telling me to wake up because my grandma had fallen on her way to the bathroom.
When I got to my grandmother’s house and saw, her I knew that something was not right. It almost seemed as if she wasn’t really there. We finally lifted her up and put her on a chair. She was so unsteady sitting on the chair that I had to stand and hold her up while my sister called the EMS. My grandmother was also confused, which scared us a little because she was always so sharp and did not forget anything.
EMS arrived and took her to the hospital. The ER said that she had excess water in and around her heart again. While waiting for a bed, she was still pretty confused and when we asked the nurses why, they said it could be from medications my grandmother was taking, from the hospital setting, or anything. My grandmother stayed in the hospital for about two weeks because they could not really figure out what was really wrong with her, because she was still confused, was not sleeping at night, and she was irritable. They were suppose to do a spinal tap to see what was going on but they canceled it because the day they were supposed to do it, she seemed to have woken up and looked and felt better.
I had never heard of Sepsis before but one of my aunts had and she asked me to ask the nurse if they had checked for it. When I asked, the nurse said they checked and she did not have it. My grandmother ended up coming home but had to be on a hospital bed. She was home for about a week and half before she went right back into the hospital, but while she was at home, she did not sleep at night, was still confused, and she ended up getting oxygen because she felt like she could not take a deep breath. She also kept saying something was wrong but she didn’t know what was wrong or what was hurting.
I was leaving class when my sister messaged me and told me that they had taken my grandma to the hospital again. I thought that she would go in and come out just like every other time, but this time she never did. Right when the EMS arrived, they knew she was not okay and said that she said in critical condition. When they saw her in the ER, the doctor looked at my mom and said, “she is going to die.” We did not believe that because we knew how strong she was and we’re used to her going in and out of the hospital.
They had to put her in a respirator right away and they admitted her into the ICU. The doctors gave us no hope, they saw all of her illnesses and were pretty sure that she was septic and did not give us any hope that she would make it. When they confirmed that she was septic, they asked us if we wanted to turn off the machines. She was not only on the respirator, she was also not waking up from anesthesia. At this point the doctor asked us to turn off the machine because he did not think she would get better or even wake up.
My grandmother did not wake up for about two weeks but she did wake up. When her primary care physician came in to see her, she finally opened her eyes. She still seemed confused but after a while when we asked her questions she seemed to respond, so she came and went. She stayed at that hospital for about a month. They ended up putting in a tracheotomy and a feeding tube. They gave her blood because she became anemic, and she started to run fevers on and off and etc.
My grandmother wast transferred to a long-term acute care hospital that specialized in trachs. She stayed there for another month. The third week into the long-term acute care hospital stay, she was transferred to yet another hospital because her blood pressure dropped dangerously low. Her wish was to never have to suffer and even though we might have gone against her word, it was because it always had that little tinge of hope that she would always get better.
My grandmother ended up passing on May, 9 2011. Now I want to get the word out there about Sepsis because it is such an easy thing to develop if a person is not aware of it. Maybe if we had known the signs to look for, my grandmother would still be here. My grandmother was truly like no other she was caring, kind, giving, loving, anything you can ever think of. She was the center of our worlds and it broke all of our hearts when she left us but we just wanted her to rest. I try to spread the word about Sepsis to as many people as I can.
