Kathi S.

Late July 2015 I woke up and felt a burning in the lower part of my back on the right side. Later I would learn it was my sciatica. By evening the pain was so bad I was crying . Before daylight the next day I would be making what was my first trip to the ER but not my last. I would go 4 or 5 more times in the next two weeks. They never ran any kind of tests or even checked me out in any way and 15 minutes after getting there I was sent home with a prescription for pain pills. My friend took me to the ER and insisted they keep me and find out what was wrong with me because nobody who is OK screams all night long.

I remember hearing someone screaming at night I just didn’t know it had been me. In the days before I remember thinking that I was going insane, seeing weird things and people who I knew weren’t there. Way later I realized I had been hallucinating almost the entire time of that 2 weeks. (Sepsis and Hallucinations)

So finally tests were being done and not even an hour later I had been transferred to another hospital and then it was within the next hour I was being life flighted to Salt Lake City because I was in severe septic shock and was dying due to organ failure. Untreated I wouldn’t have lived through another night.

So anyway, it would be almost 5 months later before I would go home. 3 months in hospitals and 2 months in rehab having to learn how to walk again, although I’d been told I’d never walk again. Sepsis had caused hundreds and hundreds of abscesses to form and attach themselves to my entire spine, muscles and nerves causing extensive damage. It took 4 months, 24 hours a day for an IV antibiotic to finally get rid of them.
Even though it’s been over 2 years ago I am still dealing with all the damages and pain sepsis has left me with.