Brian Mann

I am a sepsis survivor. I had not heard of this condition until I developed it, despite having a medical family.

In 2018 I started having stomachaches that came and went in early June. This was a time when food poisoning was occurring throughout the nation with fresh produce greens, which I had eaten. The stomachaches came and went, but never became any worse – until one day, I began sweating despite cold skin. Then over the course of 6 hours, my stomach hurt worse and worse until I was driven into the emergency room. A CT scan revealed appendicitis. (Sepsis and Appendicitis)

Surgery was lined up in several hours, and they gave a pain med to tide me over. Initial surgery showed the appendix had burst, spewing bacteria all over my organ cavity, and it was covered in pus. I went into full emergency surgery for 5-6 hours where they closed the appendix opening, removed my organs for cleaning, put them back in with lots of antibiotics, but left incision open to drain.

I was like this for 7 days, on pain meds. The surgeons estimated I had less than 6 hours to live, my organs started shutting down. I thought they were joking – I could see from their expressions they were not. I told them I didn’t come in at the 1st twinge of pain due to my expensive medical insurance. They stopped chiding me after that.

They saved my life, but neither have I been the same since. My memory is spottier, and I’ve lost some energy. Still thankful to have survived. Hope this helps somebody.