Raymond Thomson

On August 10, 2019, I spent the day at a birthday party for one of my great grandsons. It was 96, and I sat out by the pool and watched the urchins play. I felt fine. The next morning, I woke up at about 6:30 to use the bathroom. I was shivering so I knew I had a fever.

As I lay back down I thought I should call 911. At 11:30, when I was not at church, my pastor felt something was wrong, so he and another brother came to my house to awaken me. When they saw me, they called 911.

The pastor told the EMT to take me to Northside hospital, about 20 miles away. The EMT said I would not make it to Northside, and took me to the nearest emergency room. Even so, it was a very close thing and, but for the grace of God, I would not have survived. Had the pastor not come to check on me, I would have died that day.

Since then I had have another sepsis event, but it was not as life threatening. It turns out that I have been aspirating acid reflux. (Sepsis and Pneumonia)