Lucy Riddle

My mom fell. She injured her leg on a Thursday and went in for surgery. She kept complaining of pain in her stomach. Her surgery went well the next day, all the while she still complaining of pain in her stomach. (Sepsis and Surgery)

My mom went through 2 days of excruciating pain in her stomach. We kept telling nurses and doctors. They noted everything. On Saturday when I finally asked to see a doctor in the middle of the night after she’d been throwing up, we were dismissed told the doctors would make their rounds in the morning.

Another 2 hours later and my mom was being tubed. They said they couldn’t clear her airway due to “old blood,” which was what my mom was throwing up and the nurse didn’t recognize it. My mother my mother looked up at me a couple of times later that morning not understanding what was happening. That was the last time I was able to communicate with her. She died later that night. I have still been in shock for the last 2 years that a hospital could not be aware of how sick my mom was.

Because of the extreme way she died the doctor that was called to try to help my mom ordered an autopsy. The result was sepsis. They couldn’t find a cause, any internal bleeding, but there was old blood found in her stomach when they tried to put a breathing tube in. She was 64.

The picture is my favorite photo of me and my mom.

Source: by Anise Severt (Lucy's daughter)