William Allen

William Allen
Survivor

My father was very poorly in 2013. He was admitted to hospital with a range of problems that were as a result of being put on a high dose of steroids for too long, which was overlooked by the consultants and the two hospitals that were involved. This resulted in a high temperature, shaking, and confusion. He was diagnosed and treated for sepsis with a very high dose of antibiotics and was in hospital for 21 weeks. At one point my family was asked to come in to the hospital to be advised that my father was not expected to live.

My father has thankfully survived but has been left immobile and now has caregivers and family to care for him. He was a totally independent strong man before this happened.

None of the consultants or doctors involved have ever been able to trace the source of the sepsis. My father has had appendicitis since this ordeal, which put him back in to hospital with yet more antibiotics and as they have not removed the appendix. I was advised that it is probable that his appendix will be a problem again in the future!

I was hoping that the appendix was the original source of the sepsis problem but apparently not. It would have been good to have had more information/knowledge about sepsis but my impression that there is still a lot unknown about sepsis and I think that there are many patients who have the symptoms but go undiagnosed through lack of knowledge/training on what to look for.

Source: by Maureen Miller (William's daughter)

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