Deborah Newhouse

I am a 58-year-old grandmother who had sepsis April of 2013. I started with flu-like symptoms on Thursday, having to leave work early for feeling nausea. I vomited on side of road before I could get home. This started quickly, but I thought for sure it was flu.

By Saturday I was worse: vomiting, fever, couldn’t get out of bed. Sunday about 3 am, I woke feeling the worse I ever felt in my life. I was groggy, malaise – I think I vomited blood. I called 911 and when ambulance got there, I was passed out on bathroom floor. My blood pressure was low.

I spent couple of hours in the ER while they tried to figure out what I had. Finally they put me in ICU for 3 days and told me I had sepsis. I didn’t even know what sepsis was.

I was on many IVs and a urine bag, and I had heart central line – so many wires that I would get tangled in them any time I tried to reposition myself. I had a urinary tract infection (UTI) turn septic. (Sepsis and Urinary Tract Infections) I will never forget the experience and am afraid every time I get sick now. I still have heart pressure a year later. I’ve been diagnosed with diabetes type 2 and I have all over pain that is worse. Twp months after I had sepsis, my son-in-law’s mother, who was 53, died from sepsis in the hospital. It’s extremely serious and scary to have sepsis.