Billy Tankersley
My brother Billy was in his early seventies when he died. This was 6 years ago. He had surgery in Atlanta, Georgia. Billy had throat cancer caused by Barrett’s disease. He was given three choices and he chose to have the infected part of his esophagus taken out and pulled up.
His doctor told us he had came through the surgery wonderfully and should be recovering soon but the doctor said he was going out of town and would leave Billy in the care of his assistants. There were several of us (brothers, sisters, spouse, sons etc) at the hospital and we all celebrated. Then they told us that they did not have room for him in recovery and they would take him to the next step of recovery (this area was open and visitors were coming and going). When we left that night to go to our hotel Billy looked good. Early the next morning when I arrived, the nurse wanted to know why we didn’t stay with him. (No one had told us this and his wife chose to go home).
Billy was swelling and had developed an infection. (Sepsis and Cancer) They were pouring antibiotics (the strongest they said) in to him but I watched him die. He had asked me before his surgery if I thought he was doing the right thing and I said, yes of course, and encouraged him. By the next day, my precious oldest brother had died of Sepsis. The other people in the waiting room shared that their family member had also developed sepsis but were getting better.
Of course, I blamed the lack of care at the unit he was in. Obviously something was spreading. I am the youngest in the family and I wanted to write a letter asking for investigation but the rest of the family just wanted to let it go. Well, that is in the past now but I miss my brother every day and I feel like he could have won over this cancer if not for the infection.
I am so very aware of Sepsis now and take that into consideration when someone I love goes into the hospital. Sorry for such a long message but this is the first I have written about this.
Source: by Linda Humber (Billy's sister)
