Janice Baird

My Aunt Janice Baird had been diagnosed with a hernia a few years back. She never mentioned it much and we didn’t worry about it. She was on the waiting list to be seen by a surgeon as her doctor had referred her. He said a close eye should be kept on the hernia.

My aunt hadn’t been feeling well for a few days. She seemed to have a virus. She had stomach pain and felt warm and cold. She was admitted to hospital on the Wednesday and diagnosed with a urine infection and released. Her pain got worse and she was seen again on Sunday by a doctor who didn’t seem too concerned as her blood pressure and body temperature were normal at that time.

The following day she felt worse again and another doctor came to see her at her home. He suggested she may have a bowel blockage and she was admitted to hospital. She was given a CT scan and diagnosed with an incarcerated hernia. Her bowel had become caught and the Doctor told us they may not be able to operate as she was now in shock. Her blood pressure was very low. They said if they put her under she wouldn’t survive so they had to try and get her blood pressure back up before operating. She was talking to us and laughing a little and joking. We told her we would wait at the hospital all night until she had her surgery.

A few hours later the doctor and nurse came to the family room and told us they wouldn’t be able to do the surgery as her blood pressure kept dropping and she would pass away within hours.

Less than an hour later she passed away and she seemed peaceful and didn’t seem to be in any pain. We spoke to her and held her hand. We thanked her for being so great with us when we were children and told her we loved her very much.

How can someone pass away so quickly like that, it doesn’t make any sense at all.

Her death certificate said, incarcerated Hernia, septic shock and multi organ failure.

It’s almost 3 months on and I’m still so angry and confused about it all.

We can send people to another planet but we can’t fix something that seems so simple.

I met with the surgeon who would have seen her when she reached the top of the waiting list and he told me because she had so many risk factors (weight, poor mobility) he would never have operated on her because there would have been no way to know this would have happened and the surgery could have killed her.

She was 66 years old.

I miss her terribly.

Screw you sepsis.

Source: Marisa (Janice's niece)