Ron Brazda
I was walking around Lowe’s on 8/1/2014 when my left leg simply stopped working. I managed to hobble to the car and back home, at which point I immediately told my wife to call an ambulance because the pain was excruciating and I couldn’t walk. I was admitted to the hospital and it was determined that the femoral artery in my left leg was not getting any blood.
On 8/2 I underwent fem/fem surgery to insert a graft to divert blood flow from the right leg to the left. The surgery appeared successful, but the left side incision wouldn’t heal and was discharging copious amounts of fluid. (Sepsis and Surgery). After several days, I was discharged from the hospital after having a tube inserted into the incision to drain the fluid into an external “ball,” which had to be emptied several times a day and the amount of fluid recorded. After 2 weeks of no progress and no decrease in fluid, I developed an infection (c-diff) and was referred to an infectious disease specialist who put me on a cocktail of antiobiotics. (Sepsis and C. Diff)
After another 2 weeks, it appeared the incision was beginning to close and the fluid discharge had decreased considerably. The vascular surgeon who performed the surgery removed the tube and prescribed home health care several times a week until the incision closed, completely. It never did close. Fluid continued to discharge and another infection developed, accompanied by a fever, shakes and severe pain. I was re-admitted to the hospital. After more tests, the surgeon acknowledged that he was stumped and I was transferred by ambulance to the Medical University of South Carolina. By the time I got there (about a 2-hour trip), I was running a high fever, was completely delirious and lost consciousness. It was then I was diagnosed with sepsis.
My normal body weight of 230 lbs. exploded to 306. My wife and children were called to the hospital as it did not appear that I would survive. After several weeks in the hospital, drifting from delirium to semiconciousness and interludes of lucidity, whatever antibiotics that had me on started to work, and I was (in my mind) returned from the dead. I was then transferred to a rehabilitation facility to continue wound care because the left side incision still would not heal.
After spending Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s between the hospital and rehab, I was finally allowed to go home the 2nd week of January, 2015, where I underwent another 3 months of rehab at home and physician administered wound care, all the while on several different antibiotics.
By April, 2015 everything was healed with the only apparent lasting negative effect an inability to walk more than 100 feet before experiencing debilitating pain in my legs, which continues to this day. No one seems to able to explain or provide a means of correcting this and I am now monitored quarterly by ultrasounds of the legs and semi-annually with CTs. Blood clots and future infection are now a lifelong concern. However, I have both of my legs and I am alive, for which I am eternally grateful.
