Maria Martin

Maria Martin
Survivor

One Friday in 2005 I had laparoscopic surgery to remove a cyst from my right ovary that had been causing pain for several weeks. (Sepsis and Surgery) During the surgery, the doctor burned a hole in my bowel, but continued to finish the surgery and send me to recovery. (Sepsis and Perforated Bowel)

The staff woke me up about an hour after my surgery and sent me home within a half an hour of waking, which I always thought was a little too soon to go home since I was still very groggy. Later that night, I was sick but just figured it was the anesthesia wearing off, so I went to bed.

In the middle of the night, I woke up in a lot of pain. I couldn’t move and couldn’t talk, so my mom called the doctor who was on call and told her what was happening to me. The doctor told her to have me take some percocet and go to sleep, and call the doctor on Monday because I was a private patient since I worked for the doctor’s group who performed the surgery.

I am told that all I did was sleep the next day, but I don’t remember that day, or most of Sunday for that matter. I remember that I was in a lot of pain and Sunday night I was extremely sick and my mom made me sleep in her room because I vomited all over in my room.

On Monday at 10 am, my mom and grandfather took me to the emergency room. They told me, but I don’t remember because I was dying, that I had to have surgery again to repair the error made during the first surgery. At 5 pm that night (yes, they made me wait SEVEN HOURS!) I went in to have my 2nd surgery and, when I woke up from it, it was about 13 days after I had gone into the ER.

I didn’t know what was going on. I woke up alone in a dark room, and I tried to climb out of the bed, but I could not walk. I could not move my legs at all. I was screaming for help, but no one would come. After a while, someone did come help me back into bed and I fell asleep. When I woke up again, my mom was there with flowers. I saw that she was crying, so I asked what was wrong, and all she could say was “Don’t ever do that to us again!” I was even more confused. I spent the next couple of hours in and out of consciousness as I was told what happened.

I was told that my 2nd surgery was to repair my bowel that was perforated during the 1st surgery in a few different places and that they took out 2 feet of my bowel, part of my colon, my appendix, and many lymph nodes. Afterwards, I was kept in the Intensive Care Unit overnight just for observation, but never woke up. I had been in a coma for almost 2 weeks and was on a ventilator to breathe. I had a blood infection, peritonitis, and I went into septic shock from the fluids that were leaking in my body for so long.

As I was in the Intensive Care Unit, my temp was always elevated and I developed bilateral pneumonia. (Sepsis and Pneumonia) I had a central IV line placed in my chest to go directly into my heart and I was trying to pull all of the tubes out of me, so they restrained me to the bed. I guess I didn’t like that too much, because I’ve been told I was kinda mouthy at times! Because I was so infected, my surgeon decided that he was going to leave the incision on my stomach open so that no further infection would develop. It was to be packed with gauze every day until it closed on its own.

After I woke up, I had to learn to walk again. I started out with a walker, then ended up with a cane. When I was released from the hospital I had to have my physical therapist come out to my house 3 times per week to help with walking and building my strength back up. I will never be able to function “normally” again because I will always have some type of issue to deal with from this error.

It saddens me to hear of other people’s suffering from sepsis because I know how horrible it feels to experience it, and every time I read a story about it, I feel like I’m reliving it over and over again.

Prayers to all of the victims of sepsis and their families.

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