Joyce Yates

Mom was going to be 70 , she lived next door to me. Mom called me at work, she sounded exhausted, she asked me if I had something to measure her oxygen level. I thought something seemed strange so I left work early. When I walked in the door, she was coming out of the bathroom, she was very dizzy. She was hard to understand. I decided to call the fire department.

The medics took Mom’s temp, it was 102. The firemen said she probably had the flu. I said she needs to go to the hospital. We went by ambulance. The hospital did blood work. We waited 8 hours, the ER was shorthanded that night. I finally stopped the doctor in the hall and asked if they were going to admit Mom or send us home. After reviewing her chart he said your Mom is very sick. They moved us to ICU. The next morning they checked her blood oxygen level and said she needed more oxygen. We both slept most of the day. That night they woke me up and said they needed to intubate her immediately. I said if it was only temporarily while they looked for the infection origin that would be fine. Mom woke up, I said, “Mom, they need to put you to sleep for a few days while they figure out where your infection is coming from”, will that be okay? She said okay and I love you!

That was the last time I heard her voice. We took her off life support 4 days later to see if she would respond. She died a few days later. The hospital now has a SEPSIS STAT team.

Source: Denise Haase