Kevin Wissel

On 7/25/15 I was diagnosed with sepsis. Two weeks prior I got a small cut on my knee working in my yard. On 7/23/15 when I got home from work, I had chills, headache and body aches. It was a hot day and I associated it with heat stress. I threw up several times that evening. The next day I had body aches but no more vomiting. During this whole time I had a normal temperature of 98.6.

The following morning I had a severe headache and my knee was red and swollen. I attempted to eat but it hurt to chew. At that time my wife and I decided to go to the ER. As soon as we arrived, they took me right in. My blood pressure was 87/51. My temperature was still normal. Right away they suspected sepsis because of my swollen leg. They started me on a broad spectrum antibiotic.

That night they took me into surgery to remove the infection from my knee. They had to remove the bursa sac, which I found out later was infected with strep a. I spent two days in the ICU until my blood pressure went back to normal.

I had to take antibiotics for two weeks threw a PIC line. Then I took oral antibiotics for one more week. I am now in my 8th week since diagnosed and currently in rehab for my knee. If I didn’t go to the hospital, I would of not survived. I had no idea what sepsis was so I had no clue of the symptoms. I hope my story can help educate people of the dangers of sepsis.