Ronny Dukes

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On Wednesday, July 31, 2013 my husband, Ronny Dukes, went to the doctor because he felt like he had a UTI. He was told he had a kidney stone, and was given an antibiotic and sent home. (Sepsis and Kidney Stones) He felt good enough to go to work the next day. By 10:30 that Thursday night he was having uncontrollable chills but no fever. I took him to the emergency room because he had never had a kidney stone and I wasn’t sure what he was feeling was normal. They told him that he indeed had a kidney stone and told him to continue the antibiotic and gave him pain medication.

Friday and Saturday he still was not feeling well but we continued with the medicine, waiting for the stone to pass. He was in the bed or lounging in the recliner for those two days but was talking to us and nodding off from time to time. He didn’t eat much and we were continuously trying to get him to drink fluids.

At 10 am Sunday morning, I took Ronny back to the emergency room because he was not getting any better. They took him right in because his blood pressure was extremely low and his heart rate was really high. They treated him for heart issues because he had a heart attack in 2002.

At 4 in the afternoon they took him to ICU and told me they were putting him on life support. Still they were looking at the heart as the problem. Not until the critical care doctor came to the floor at 6 pm did we learn it was an infection. I felt such relief because it was only an infection and not having any knowledge of sepsis. Two and a half hours later my husband of 26 years was dead at the age of 58. The cause of death was septic shock. I know when he walked in that emergency room that morning, he had no idea he would never walk out.

Please tell everyone you know or that will listen about how deadly sepsis is.

Source: by Beth Dukes (Ronny's wife)

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