Anais Cezanne Lumbang

Survivor

My 6-month old-daughter, Anais, was confined to a hospital in Manila because of dengue fever January 17, 2014. (Sepsis and Children) On the second day, her platelet count dropped to 60 and her pediatrician requested for immediate frozen plasma transfusion. On the fourth day, at 3 a.m., she started to chill with 39 deg. C fever. Laboratory test showed that Anais had a UTI and she was immediately given a dose of penicillin. (Sepsis and Urinary Tract Infections)

Anais_Cezanne_Lumbang_1Her fever shot up every time she was given a dose of penicillin. On the same day, she started to have chills, a low oxygen level, her heart rate going up and 40 deg. C fever. She could hardly breathe. Her skin was turning violet because of low oxygenation on her body. I looked at her and told her, “please hold on baby. We need you. We love you so much and your brothers are waiting for you to come home.”. She struggled 40 minutes in that situation until her oxygen level went up. The antibiotic seemed not to be working and was changed to higher level of antibiotic, but still her white blood cells and hematocrit weren’t normal and Anais still had chills every time she was given a dose of antibiotic.
On the fifth day, she looked so pale. Her breathing was not normal, fever was steady at 39.5 deg. C. Her hands and feet were turning violet. Her pediatrician requested blood cultures, but I thought this was too late for the request; it must have been done from the first attack of hypoxia. X-ray results showed that she also had pneumonia. Still, laboratory results showed abnormal white blood cells and low platelet countsAnais_Cezanne_Lumbang_3

The antibiotics were changed to next level, but still were not working and she looked more critically ill. On the seventh day, an intensive pediatrician from other hospital checked my daughter, he said she was suffering from severe sepsis, based on her medical graph from the fourth day of her confinement, but still the blood cultures would be the only answer to know which kind of antibiotic would be the best to fight for the bacteria in her blood. Unfortunately, the blood culture was done late, so the antibiotics would be a hit and miss. On that night, we also transferred her to another hospital to give her more attention and proper care.Anais_Cezanne_Lumbang_4

Anais was confined and intubated in ICU for 5 days. Her blood culture results showed she was infected by a bactria known as serratia marcescens, a hospital-acquired bacteria that is very strong and resistant to most antibiotics. Luckily, she was given the right antibiotic to fight that bacteria. Every day we are thanking God for her recovery. We still see her smiles, saw her first walk, celebrated her first birthday.

Source: by Joana Lumbang (Anais's mother)

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