Donna Kiess

I went in for a knee replacement surgery 18 months ago. The second day the surgeon did a second surgery a “scrub.” (Sepsis and Surgery) After that I developed high temperature, vomiting and, unfamiliar of my surroundings, falling out of the hospital bed. The third day they had me up and when I was to attempted to walk I fell. A nurse slapped me across the face.

That night a nurse came in to turn my light off, she listened to my heart and I remember her running from the room. The next time I woke I was in the heart unit. They told me I had three large blood clots in my lungs and I had a heart attack. I was never told the word sepsis. They put a PIC line in and started large doses of antibiotics. I continued having severe diarrhea all the time. I was there three weeks, not three days, and my surgeon left for four months the day after the scrub surgery. After home three weeks still on antibiotics, she mentioned I had sepsis. I told her I felt the antibiotics were making me worse. She said they were very strong as I had to take them twice a day for an hour. She said they could destroy the good bacteria in the stomach as well as the good. I was still having diarrhea and vomiting. It has been 18 months and I still have vomiting and diarrhea. Yet doctors tell me the sepsis is over.