John Butler

I lost my young, strong and healthy 42-year-old son to “sepsis of unknown origin” on December 9, 2023. He developed a fever and body aches on December 8th while at work. His coworkers had recently returned to work from having the flu so we assumed that he had contracted it as well. He went home, took some meds and went to bed.

He called me early the following morning and asked if I would come take him to the emergency room. I picked him up and we went to the nearest hospital. He said he felt weak and dehydrated but walked into the emergency room. I registered him and they took him back to triage.

When he didn’t come back out I asked about him and they let me go back with him. I’m a nurse and noticed his blood pressure and oxygen sats were low. They had IV fluids going and placed him on oxygen.

He complained that his whole torso hurt and he couldn’t take a deep breath. I am a cardiac nurse and did not recognize the symptoms as sepsis related. I immediately thought aneurysm dissection, heart attack, etc.

When blood work finally resulted, he was in renal failure and his platelets were 14. He was always so healthy that I didn’t think about him having a history of a splenectomy until it was all over. I can see now that I was in shock. Medical staff were still unsure of what was happening. (Sepsis and Impaired Immune System)

After a few hours they decided to intubate him and he went into cardiac arrest during their 3rd attempt. I had never seen anything like what was going on. He was purple and cold to the touch on his upper body. His lower body was normal color and temp. I had never heard of a sepsis rash but now know that is what it was. I never dreamed that when he walked into that emergency room that he wouldn’t walk out!

After a lot of research, I feel that signs of sepsis are not well known. If an emergency room physician did not recognize it, who will? I’ve lost my only child, my son, to this awful illness and no one recognized it.

Source: Norma Pruitt, mother