Misty Wilcox

In 2019 I had gastric bypass surgery to lose weight. I am not someone that jumps in without all the facts. I did all the research, asked people that I knew had the surgery so I felt comfortable on the day of my surgery, April 30, 2019. (Sepsis and Surgery)

As soon as I woke from the anesthesia I knew something was wrong. I had a weird tingling in both my legs but I shook it off, though it was because my body had been something big and of course, there would be some effects. I went home after 2 days, normally they send you home the next day but I had to stay because they could not get my breathing under control (this should have been my first clue). When I got home I had nothing but trouble I was in and out of the hospital. I could not eat and of course, because I had a brand new stomach when I did throw up it was just foam. I was so sick for months that I lost 140 pounds in 4 months.

I called my doctor, my surgeon, the hospital, and even the 24hr nurse advice on my insurance card and no one would or could help me. Finally, on November 19, 2019, I could not breath. It was about 10 at night. I called 911. I was so scared. I remember telling the operator I was scared and I was crying, the operator was trying to calm me and then the next thing I remember was waking up in the ICU 22 days later.

Turns out that when I arrived at the hospital I was in such bad shape that had no clue what was wrong with me. I was told that I was not making much sense and that I coded on the table twice and then again on the operating table. I had to have a hernia repair in my lower abdomen and then I had a cyst rupture on my coccyx. The only thing they could figure out that was wrong was that I was septic and that I had toxic shock syndrome. (Sepsis and Toxic Shock Syndrome) They did not know what caused it and to this day tell me it was a miracle that I even survived.

When I came out of the coma, my mental and physical needs were so affected that it was like I was a newborn baby. I had to learn to walk, talk, feed myself, and the most humiliating use the toilet. The mental issues were so much worse while in the coma I had the worst night terrors. I am terrified to be around or even near a man, It is 2022 And I still have no feeling from my waist down. I have developed cardiac problems, I have gone completely blind in my right eye and will need a cornea transplant in both eyes and I have developed liver problems. All of this is due to sepsis and toxic shock. Because my doctors did not want to listen to me. We know what is happening to our bodies, just because they can not see the problem if 1 doctor had listened to me just listened maybe I would not be as sick as I am today.