Emma Meehan

In October of 2018 I went to the ER due to vomiting blood. In the very beginning of my admission, I was given a blood transfusion. Roughly a week later the bleeding had stopped but I kept feeling worse and worse. I told my nurses I felt really ill and when my temp ran around 101° for a few days, I was told it was because I had so many blankets on me.

After 9 days in hospital they did vitals before discharge and my fever had gone up to 103° and they decided to keep me one more day for blood cultures. They came back positive for 3 types of bacteria. (Sepsis and Bacterial Infections) The next 3 weeks were a blur. Over that time I had my PICC line pulled, an NJ tube placed, and another blood transfusion. I was hallucinating and talking to myself but was too out of it to even tell the doctors how I felt.

It took 14 days of IV antibiotics, and lots of physical therapy to recover. To this day I’m still recuperating my energy back. I definitely feel that I should have spoken up more when I first started feeling so poorly. Sepsis was the scariest thing that’s ever happened to me and I still can’t remember the majority of my hospital stay, but a week before Thanksgiving, I was well enough to come home and I had a lot to be thankful for.