Todd K.

My brother had a massive stroke on December 11,2011 while in a detox facility getting his body clear of alcohol so that he could go to rehab. He was 43. In spite of losing the entire right hemisphere of his brain, he retained most of his cognitive abilities, but became hemiplegic on the left side. He had been a semi-professional drummer and was left handed, so this was devastating. Since that time he’d been in and out of the hospital because of infection and surgery to release a contracture in his affected leg.

In December 2016 Todd was in the hospital for a month battling pneumonia. (Sepsis and Pneumonia) While working on diagnosis many blood labs and scans were done. During the time in the hospital he had 7 liters of fluid drained from his lung and was on high dose of a variety of antibiotics because docs weren’t able to identify the specific bacteria they were dealing with. In August Todd was diagnosed with C-difficile. (Sepsis and C. Difficile) He had had c-diff in 2013. He remained in the hospital for a week on high doses of vancomycin. 3 days after he was released he had another bout of c-diff.

On Monday, March 13, my brother’s aide called me to say that Todd was not responding to her when she needed to have him assist her to reposition him. I told her to call 911 and that I’d meet my brother at the hospital. I suspected that he had pneumonia again because he had a nasty sounding cough on Saturday, but it wasn’t frequent and he said his lungs felt fine. I decided I’d keep an eye on him. When I arrived at the hospital Todd was incoherent. He was trying to speak, but couldn’t form words. This had never happened before. He had a 103 fever. Docs immediately ran labs and discovered a very high white count. They immediately started IV antibiotics Flagler, Vanco and a third- don’t remember the name. After scans, docs noted some fluid in one lung, but when we looked at the scan we all agreed that it appeared to be the same amount of fluid that remained in his lung when he was discharged in January. Finally, docs found the problem- a kidney stone was lodged in the urethra. (Sepsis and Kidney Stones) Docs did a straight catheterization to get a urine sample- it was clean. In the meantime other labs came back and docs diagnosed sepsis.

One of the docs asked me if Todd had completed a MOLST form. He hadn’t, but based on a conversation we had with docs the last time he was in, the hospital knew that he did not want to be resuscitated or intubated. Since I’m his proxy I was allowed to complete the form.

Docs noticed that fluid was backed up in his kidney so they determined that a PCN tube would be inserted into the kidney to drain urine. Docs told me that the procedure would take no more than 45 minutes. When there was no word after an hour I knew something was wrong. The surgeon came to get me and told me that Todd had gone into septic shock and my family would have to make decisions. Todd has been through so much. His quality of life after the stroke was low. He couldn’t bathe or toilet himself, get out of bed without assistance, He had a manual wheelchair that he couldn’t move because his feet didn’t touch the floor and he was not strong enough to use one arm to propel himself. 3 weeks ago he finally qualified for a power chair and although it would improve his life, it wouldn’t change his inability to do all other things without assistance. We opted to provide comfort care to end Todd’s suffering. He passed peacefully, surrounded by family and friends at 1:11 on Tuesday, March 14. Reading the survivors’ stories on this page has reassured me that we made the right decision. I am certain that, because Todd was in such poor health prior to sepsis, he would have even more issues after he recovered.

Source: Sister