Shirley Lewis

My mom didn’t feel right for a little two months, like really didn’t feel well, and slept a lot and was so cold. I took to the doctor’s three times the month of April, two in May, to the ER twice, and paramedics came to our home, three times. My mom refused to go with them as she feared COVID.

The day it all happened, she had a nose bleed the night before. It would not stop. I tried to get her to go to the ER. I called the EMTs. She refused. Now I know how very confused she was. The next morning she went to the ER. They cauterized her blood vessel on her nose, but didn’t give a reason it broke, still unsure.

They sent her back home. She couldn’t walk. We had to call the EMT to get her out of my sister’s truck. How can they say nothing was wrong? She chewed her pills, another sign of confusion. I still don’t understand why they couldn’t help or admit her, anything. All she said she was tired. Asked for her phone, she sent out some text messages, and she went to sleep. At 4am I tried to wake her. She would not wake up. I told my husband she is really tired, and I tried to wake her up again, nothing. So in a panic I called 911.

They came and took her to the ER. After that I only know what the details were from my sister. They life flighted her to a bigger hospital, they put in a vent, and she was on the vent for 13 days, and she woke up. For one day. It was one of my brother’s birthdays. She talked with him, prayed with him, and said she would be ok. Within an hour ,my brother called me back and said get up here, mom took a turn. I still don’t know all the details, but apparently my mom was in septic shock, from an infected pacemaker wire.  (Sepsis and Invasive Devices) My mom had heart issues for years, survived a very invasive triple by passing, with an infection, and lived another 20 years. Had the doctors caught this sooner, as she did have sepsis, because she went into septic shock, she may still be here today. Educate yourself and family on sepsis. It’s such a hidden fatal condition.

Source: Christine, daughter