Katie Ceschin McQuestion

My daughter Katie Ceschin McQuestion was just 26 years old when she died on January 2, 2015 of undiagnosed sepsis. She had been married only three months, her wedding video came two weeks after she died.

On Monday, December 29, 2014, Katie had what sounded like a head cold. On Tuesday, she was sent home from work and her doctor called in a prescription for cough syrup with codeine; I picked it up and brought it to her home. The doctor did not see Katie but said, “the flu was going around.”

On Wednesday, Katie called me crying to say this was the worst she has ever felt; she was cold and then hot, her chest hurt, she had been vomiting, and was overall miserable. Katie’s doctor called in prescription for a steroid, which I picked up and brought to her. On Thursday, January 1, New Year’s Day, Katie called me crying again because she was so sick. I met her at the hospital emergency department with her husband, the same hospital where she had worked as a radiological technologist for the last three years. Katie’s heart rate when she arrived was 160 bpm, the hospital took a chest x-ray for pneumonia, which was negative, and they tested for both influenza and strep which were negative.

Katie said it was hard to breathe and chest felt heavy, she was vomiting and feeling very uncomfortable. Her white blood cell count (WBC) was elevated – the hospital attributed this to one dose of steroid Katie took the day before. Her were extremities cold – the hospital attributed this to the IV fluid Katie was receiving. She had a low body temperature of 97.6’ and her blood pressure low but “stable.”
After 9 hours in ER, the hospital admitted Katie because of high heart rate all day. Once in her room, the nurse said they were going to take more lab work and give her something to sleep. I left Katie at 7:30pm.

The hospital called Katie’s husband and us at 10:45pm to say Katie had taken turn for worse and they were moving her to ICU. Katie died at 1:19am on Friday January 2, 2015. Katie exhibited all the signs of sepsis yet she was never diagnosed, even after being in the hospital for the previous 15 hours!

Our message to everyone is to Think Katie First when confronted with the symptoms of sepsis. People must be their own advocates, knowledge is power! Education of healthcare workers is critical, they should know the symptoms of Sepsis the same as they know heart attack or stroke symptoms.

My intention in telling Katie’s story is to prevent other families from experiencing this deep grief and indescribable pain. Words cannot begin to express the enormity of losing our child; nothing will ever be the same for our families. She was a wonderful daughter, sister and one of my best friends. I will always be thankful we were able to plan her wedding together; we had so much fun. I feel blessed to have been her mom.

Source: Ann Ceschin - Katie's mom