Tammi Davis

Featured, Survivor

My mother entered the ER in March of 2017 for lower back and chills. Once she got there things changed quickly. She developed a fever and could no longer produce urine and was in incredible pain . She was diagnosed with kidney stones and the doctors suggested for her to go home and to just try pass the stones on her own. (Sepsis and Kidney Stones) My mom felt something was not right and insisted on staying at least over night for observation. The doctor agreed.

When my mother got admitted onto the hospital floor, things took a turn for the worse. My mother began making a gurgling sound, as if her lungs were filled with fluid. Her oxygen saturations went down extremely low and they had to immediately put her on life support at the bedside of a medical floor. She was terrified as everyone moved so quickly around her, watching her children cry as they rush us out.

Once put on life support she was sent to ICU. Her organs began to shut down on her. Her kidneys were no longer functioning. Her blood was starting the attack her immune system causing her to need plasmapheresis. Her heart rate went into the 200 bpm.  I watched them stop and restart my mothers heart twice. She was still spiking high fevers and they could figure out why. The antibiotics were not working and she was rapidly declining before my eyes.

The kidney stones housed a ton of infection. My mother had no prior medical conditions so this all came as a complete surprise. The prognosis for my mother was not good and the doctors and nurses were perplexed on how she developed this condition so quickly. It was then that I learned that my mother went into septic shock. (Sepsis and Septic Shock) As the sepsis progressed, it worked on her heart and weakened her organs. It nearly killed my mother.

She was on life support for weeks and when they attempted to wean her off of sedation medications, my mother was on a ventilator with a tube down her throat for 3 days. Wide awake. I had to coach my mom that everything was going to be ok. Imagine that. My mother had to learn how walk again, drive again, was sent on home on hemodialysis. (Sepsis and Dialysis) She hated it. She then did peritoneal dialysis. She had to have her port exchanged more times than we can count. She had 3 more additional kidney stone removal surgeries . She gets sick at times still to this day. Her life whole changed. The doctors didn’t think she would make it. Sepsis nearly took my mother from me. As a result of all that she now has kidney disease but the disease doesn’t have her! (Sepsis and Kidney Failure) She beat sepsis. She is a survivor of septic shock. She is a fighter of kidney disease. Our Queen. Our Warrior .

Source: Daughter , Danielle

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