Hannah Haun

I had been struggling to fight off a kidney infection for 3 months. I’d had surgery to remove kidney stones, and had a stent placed and removed. (Sepsis and Kidney Stones) Nothing helped. I began having to visit the ER via doctors requests and every time they’d do a urine culture and CT scan and say “yeah you got a little infection. Here’s antibiotics. You can go home.”

After my third visit in a week, I felt hopeless. My specialist said “you should feel fine by now” and shrugged me off. I went to the ER on Monday, and was back Tuesday after being told I was fine. This time was different. Temp of 105 and HR of 150. Shaking uncontrollably and in intense pain. I couldn’t breathe. I spent a week in the ICU being treated for severe sepsis. I ended up with an abscess on my kidney, and fluid on my heart and lungs. I’m 24. I’m healthy. And then I was septic. It took them 12 antibiotics to find the right match. People messaged me and said “hope your infection gets better!” Or “oh I took an antibiotic with my ear infection so sepsis probs isn’t that bad!” But it was. I still can feel the internal, to my core, pain that came with sepsis. I know now to be my OWN patient advocate and to fight for proper treatment and care because doctors can’t feel what I feel. Sepsis almost took my life, but in the end it taught me how to live. I am a warrior. I beat sepsis.