Kriss Jones
I was diagnosed in the community by my GP (primary Care) with an ESBL urine infection secondary to a urine catheter. (Sepsis and Urinary Tract infections) For people who do not know ESBL is classed as a hospital supper bug, which is worse than MRSA due to the fact it is resistant to most if not all antibiotics that leaves the doctors in a difficult position to treat. In my cas,e it was a battle of treating the ESBL infection before it took hold of me. Sadly it did take hold of me and my GP (primary care) sent me into hospital for IV antibiotics.
At the point I was sent in, I was still not displaying any major symptoms of sepsis and it was being treated as a routine IV antibiotics and to try and treat this ESBL infection more aggressively. It was during my first night in the hospital I began to fall quite ill, however, on my admission, my blood tests and vital signs were all satisfactory, with the only concern being my heart rate being 110 bpm. I did not fall into the sepsis/septic shock criteria.
During my first night I was vomiting , my temperature went up to 40 degrees and I had sever rigors (shaking aggressively like a seizure ) that lasted all night. The staff were at this point worried and had called in the on-call consultant (Attending for USA readers) who stood at the end of my bed for most of the night instructing the doctors and nursing team what to do. He explained to me how I was having rigors and they were giving me all sorts of drugs to prevent the shaking. When they got the rigors under control, it was discovered my breathing was off, and I was struggling for breath despite the oxygen being given to me. My blood pressure was also sitting at 65/20.
The next morning sepsis had already been confirmed and the ITU team were informed. A chest X-ray had shown I had a plural effusion (fluid on the lungs), a chest infection. I was in renal failure and had only passed 30 mls (30 cc) of urine despite 5/6 litres of fluid and my blood clotting had become very abnormal (the blood was very thin,) which meant every time they stuck a needle into me I bled and bled and bled. It also meant they had to stick a central line into me as because of my BP being so low veins were hard to find for normal IV cannula!!
I was seen by several different consultants for general medicine, emergency treatment team, intensive care , urology surgeons, pathology doctors. All of whom decided to bring their junior doctors SHO’s , foundation year doctors (interns, residents) to show off an ESBL infection and how it had turned into sepsis and septic shock so quickly.
My breathing was the worst part. I couldn’t speak without coughing and gasping for air, and having the oxygen mask on is far from pleasant, In some ways can make it harder to breathe. It was also very painful to breathe, which is something I could not just stop doing to stop the pain. The anesthesiologist said if my breathing did not improve after they drained the fluid on the lungs, they were going to put me to sleep and I would be on a ventilator. I was so scared of this prospect and the questions start flooding into your mind about whether you will wake up again (what with the death rate being so high). In the UK, the National Health Service (NHS) website predicts over half of people who are diagnosed will die from the condition of septic shock which is much more than within the USA I believe.
At this point, the consultants had a real problem with this being an ESBL infection. It meant that my body was resistant to most if not all antibiotics. It was said to me because of this there is a great possibility I will not survive this septic shock! I was in floods of tears and didn’t know quite what to think. The doctors said that they were going to overload me on every antibiotic possible, mild over doses if need be if I agreed. I did and the antibiotics slowly started to fight the ESBL infection.
Flushing out the bladder with solutions was also done to try and flush out any ESBL that was in my bladder still. Although the progress was slow I did not end up having to be ventilated and after a 2-week spell in the ICU, I was declared fit for discharge from the ICU. All of the doctors were so surprised at how I had overcome this and were very open with me about how they thought I was going to be taken by this septic shock.
It has only been a month from my discharge from hospital and reflecting back on the whole episode I think just how lucky I was. I have a personality where I will fight for causes and things that are wrong and it is believed that it is because of this fight in my personality my body overcame this. I am still quite weak and breathing is still a problem. I am just so glad to the other side of all this and look forward to getting stronger and stronger!! I have probably missed out parts of this story but wanted to keep it semi short as not to bore people.
I know it sounds a bit melodramatic but I do very much owe my life to the doctors and nurses at my local hospital for all the interventions they did.
