Julie Dunn

Prior to December 5, 2017 I was a healthy 55-year-old woman. I was having my hair colored at my daughters’ house and I felt like I had the flu. All of a sudden I had a sharp pain in my lower abdomen. It was so bad that I had my son-in-law take me to the ER. I was diagnosed and sent home to pass a 5 mm kidney stone on December 5, 2017. (Sepsis and Kidney Stones)

I was brought back to the emergency room via ambulance 27 hours later. The kidney stone was lodged just outside my bladder and I had sepsis and had gone into septic shock. My blood pressure kept dropping and I coded. My kidneys and liver had stopped functioning.The doctors revived me and had to use vasopressor medicines to save my life. As a result of 5 days on the vasopressors, I spent two weeks in a trauma unit, 4 days in the ICU and a total of 3 months in the hospital/rehab. I lost all circulation in both my hands and my feet. The circulation never returned. After 4 weeks of waiting they had to amputate both of my hands and feet. (Sepsis and Amputations) I am still recovering from the amputations and awaiting the day to be cast and fitted for my prosthetics. Prior to this happening to me, I had not heard of sepsis. I do not want this to happen to anyone else. I would love to help educate my community, state, and nation about sepsis and its effects.