Raquel Barrera

Back in March 21, 2016, my mother went in for a routine hernia removal. We waited all day for her surgery and about 11:00pm the doctor comes out and says he would not do surgery till the following day in the morning. Once again we waited all day, then sometime about 6-7 they send my mom back to her room and told her no surgery that day again, but then about 10:00pm they come back to take my mom into surgery. (Sepsis and Surgery)

Unfortunately my brother and I were not there with her that night because we live an hour away from the hospital in a different town. Our nightmare starts on the 23rd in the morning when our mother doesn’t answer her phone. We rush over to see what’s going on and sure enough she could not stay still and she kept telling us something was wrong. Her pressure is already low she was on a drip medication and her heart rate was high. By the time she was taken into ICU that night she was really bad and had to be intubated!

The charge nurse explained to us what was going on with our mom and that they would work on her to make sure she’d be comfortable! We had never heard about SEPSIS! We left the hospital not knowing if she would make it that night! That first week turned into two, three, four weeks later and our mother was still fighting for her life. Her Birthday was March 31st and she had not woken up. Days later the doctor found out that one of her intestines had a small tear and she had to go in for surgery once again. (Sepsis and Perforated Bowel)

Our mother was connected to every machine that was there her pressure and heart was still uncontrollable and at this time a machine was breathing for her. She had infection in every part of her body! Every day was something new with our poor mom and she had no clue of anything that she was going through. Easter comes and goes and our mother still asleep. About a month later she finally wakes up and it’s the best feeling ever, but that doesn’t last long when we get the call that our mother had some complications and the doctors had to work on her early in the morning.

By the time we get there we are hit again with “we need to take her in to surgery again.” She has developed pockets of infection all over her stomach and need to be cleaned! We were devastated and didn’t know if we were making the right decision for her. Surgery had gone well but the next two months, our mother was asleep again and not responsive. After the third month of being hospitalized and in ICU she wakes up, but we notice a huge difference in our mom. After they were able to take her off of the machines and medication months later she was moved to a hospital for rehabilitation where she spent another month in a half. After being in bed and not moving for so long she was so weak and has to learn how to do everything again. Finally we were able to bring her to our home town in August, but unfortunately we had to put her in the nursing home for more rehab. SEPSIS has changed our lives and my mom in so many ways.. she is only 68 and from driving, cooking, working, and doing everything for her self now everything has to be done for her. Today is still a huge struggle for her And for us. She is still very weak and has not been able to walk, completely lost her hearing, is having problems with her memory and lost with everything that has happened to her. We are truly Blessed that she is still alive and will take whatever struggles GOD gives us and we thank GOD everyday for Blessing us with our beautiful mother and grandmother! More people. We’d to know about SEPSIS and how much damage it can cause!

Source: Mariela B. Salinas (Raquel's daughter)