H. Shivani

My father was diagnosed with kidney stones in July 2020. He had a catheter inserted and also a stent so the stones would not become obstructive. (Sepsis and Kidney Stones, Sepsis and Invasive Devices) He also had an enlarged prostate. His surgery was scheduled for Aug 18 2020. The doctor passed it to another doctor who gave an appointment only on Aug 20. During this time my father went through a lot of pain and was in and out of ER to put the catheter in and out. He lost over 12 lbs in 2 weeks and had become nervous.

The doctors took their time to examine him. When he went in on the 20th of Aug they were more interested in doing his prostate surgery and said two weeks after that they will remove the stones. They refused checking the stones that were non obstructive on the other side. My dad went through pain on and off. Surgery was scheduled for September 20. On the 11th of September my dad was out and about pain free and very enthusiastic. We were happy. On September 12 he complained of a different pain but took ibuprofen and a hot water bag. He felt nauseous and said it was a different pain. The pain went away. He had a smell and discoloration of urine but he was not rushed to the ER because the pain went away.

On September 13 he woke up completely pale and shivering. His BP was very very low. He was rushed to ER where they took him to ICU. They diagnosed him with sepsis and put a central line in him 6 hours later. He remained in ICU. He refused to sleep he was nervous but completing his online tasks. They gave him blood transfusion to bring his BP to normal. He responded well. He would not sleep.

I flew in from another state to see my dad. The ICU would not let me see him. Morning of September 14 I went to see him. Told him he must sleep to recoup. It was like he was waiting for me. His breathing was different. The doctors met us and said he has responded well, waiting for kidney and liver numbers from testing to come in and if he continues this progress he can go home in 10 days. My dad closed his eyes and tried to sleep. We came home. In 20 mins I got the worst call of my life. We were told he is no more and they have been resuscitating him for 40 mins. We rushed. He had coded. His pulse came back 3 times but the oxygen had not gone to the brain for over an hour.

They tried doing dialysis through the neck because he got renal failure. My dad was gone just like that. He was happy healthy and up and about until this hit. I did not know what SEPSIS was. I wish he were taken into ICU the day before he would have been saved. It’s the saddest that he is not amongst us. There is no awareness. Hospitals lack immediate resources to treat this. He could have had a central line within 30 mins of being there and diagnosed with severe sepsis. Maybe he would be with me.

Source: Monisha, his daughter