Rhonda Albritton

Survivor

I am a critical care nurse. I have taken care of severely septic patients and they are among the sickest patients ever, and often don’t survive. I am acutely aware of how fortunate I am to be sitting her typing my story.

I honestly didn’t know what hit me on a Saturday morning in August. I woke up and had breakfast with my 2 young boys as usual, feeling fine. My husband went to work and the boys and I got ready to do some school supply shopping. Within 30 minutes of arriving at the store, I began having abdominal cramping and pain. I thought to myself that it was probably the salad I ate the night prior that wasn’t agreeing with me. I quickly finished shopping and left. Five minutes later, after arriving home, the pain and cramping was so bad I could not get my kids out of their car seats – they had to unbuckle themselves.

I begin shaking uncontrollably and felt nauseous. I set the kids up with juice and cartoons, and laid down on my bed thinking it was going to be a long day; I would have to let this stomach bug take its course. I did call my husband to alert him I had some sort of stomach flu. We agreed I would call in one hour if I didn’t feel better.

An hour later, I called my husband; I was shaking even more and the pain was the worst pain I have ever felt. By 11 am, he was rushing me to the nearest hospital and his mother had come over to watch the kids. In the ER, I was quickly attached to monitors and IV fluids, questioned and taken to CT scan and ultrasound. My temperature was mildly elevated and my blood pressure moderately low. The pain was even worse if that was possible. I begged for pain medication when the first dose wasn’t effective. My husband stayed near helping to keep me calm. The CT scan results showed a possible bowel obstruction and that my intestines were very ‘angry’ and inflamed. I was given several bags of IV fluid.

By 5pm my blood pressure was very low and I was very weak, unable to move in the bed. I was started on pressors – potent medications to keep my blood pressure up. I was transferred to ICU and given antibiotics and additional fluids and pressors. Later that night, my blood cultures were positive for a bacteria. I had a blood infection. The following day a central IV line was placed in my neck for additional pressor support and a tube was placed in my stomach through my nose. I remained with a low blood pressure, restless and in pain. That evening I began to have trouble breathing, so I was intubated and placed on a ventilator. Meanwhile my husband was helpless, wondering if our kids would grow up motherless. He called my family in Canada who immediately made arrangements to fly in.

I remained on the ventilator for 2 days, febrile and unstable showing signs of heart and liver damage. My blood began to show abnormal coagulation (blood clotting) levels. The doctors prepared my husband and family.

By the second day on the ventilator, I was showing signs of improvement. I can remember the sedation wearing off and seeing my whole family standing in the hospital room. I couldn’t speak because of the tube but I remember thinking that things must be pretty grave for all of them to be standing there staring at me. My colleagues came by also and were present during me getting my breathing tube out. I had turned the corner and beat the odds. It was a miracle to say the least. I remained in the hospital another week and was discharged home with a special IV line for antibiotics.

I can remember feeling week and dazed. I was numb also to feeling and thinking anything. Maybe this was a sort of protection mode for me not to simply freak out about the whole situation. Decisions were hard, even what to eat or wear. I was exhausted in every way. I wanted to sleep all the time or just lie in quiet. Hard to do with a 3- and 5-year-old running around the house. My family had stayed in stages to help us with the kids and the household chores and cooking, getting me to appointments. I returned to work a month later, my energy levels returning to normal after about 6 weeks.

I was diagnosed with Toxic Shock Syndrome from a Streptococcal pyogenes bacteremia. (Sepsis and Toxic Shock Syndrome) This is not the same TSS from tampons (that is caused by staphylococcus). Strep also is the same bacteria that causes impetigo in children, strep throat and necrotizing fasciitis. How the bacteria got into my bloodstream remains a mystery to me. A doctor suggested that perhaps it was an opportunistic infection secondary to the stomach bug.

No matter how it happened, I think of my good fortune every day. This experience has changed my perspective on many things in life such as appreciating my husband and kids and has opened my eyes to new opportunities for sepsis awareness. I have recently been appointed my facility’s Sepsis Program Coordinator. Now I have been given the opportunity to help raise awareness to sepsis and play an important role in helping to reduce mortality from sepsis.

“This picture was taken 11 days after I went to the hospital. My sister Kara, my mother Debbie, and father Greg are on the left. My two children Aiden (5) and Ryan (3), and my husband Ashley (who happened to save my life by taking me to the hospital without hesitation) are on the right.”

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