Tommy Bosko

One October day my wife and I were on our yearly vacation in the mountains of western Marylands, celebrating Autumn Glory, at a vacation rental in Deep creek lake. The rental cabin had a hot tub. I enjoyed soaking in it since it was crisp outside and the trees were really beautiful in the colors of fall, I like saying they looked as if they were painted by God’s paint brush.

The trip was great and I was fine for a few weeks after returning home. Then one night I couldn’t get warm. My wife put all of our blankets on me. Still freezing, I finally drifted off to sleep thinking I was having the flu, with the same feelings of achy stuffy feelings. Having type 2 diabetes, woke up to use the bathroom and started shaking un controllable. I checked my glucose, It was very high over 300. (Sepsis and Diabetes)

My cognitive abilities became worse, I was shaking so bad, I even couldn’t control myself and ran into a wall. I managed to get back into bed, my wife called the paramedics. They arrived and put me on oxygen, and rushed me to the hospital. In the ER, a very good doctor recognized the symptoms as being sepsis. The blood work came back positive, it was sepsis indeed. I was immediately put on high doses of antibiotics. I was admitted to the hospital, under the care of nursing and my doctor where they were worried I wouldn’t survive.

My blood pressure kept dropping, and I developed a very high fever. Then one morning my doctor came in, it was about 4:30 am, I knew then something was up and how serious this was. He sat on my bed, and he told me my friend, you may not make it. Since you have such a high fever for so long, if you survive you probably will have some brain damage. He told me let’s try a unique treatment. I was placed in a tray of ice in my room. The ice felt so good to me since I was burning up. The next day my friends and colleagues came to visit as well as my wife, and Father Ted who earlier gave me communion and my last rights. I was kept in this ice bath for 3 days.

My fever broke, and the tests showed there wasn’t any brain damage. I was still in the hospital when my doctor told me I picked up some bacteria most likely from the hot tub. (Sepsis and Bacterial Infections) He told me if you’re diabetic you should never be in a hot tub. I never knew something so enjoyable almost killed me. After being released from the hospital, for weeks at home I was still on antibiotics. I finally got my strength back, and was able to return back to work. Believe me when I say that I never got into another hot tub, no matter how alluring they may be. Glory to GOD, for giving me a great health care team, who recognized the symptoms for sepsis, and antibiotics.