Vanessa Torres Solorzano

My name is Vanesa, I’m from Colombia, I’m 22 years old and I’m a university student five months ago. Exactly in May of this year, before leaving the university, I started with a very strong pain in the right flank and went to the back. I went to the emergency department immediately, because I thought it was appendicitis, but they told me it was not appendicitis and I signed out voluntarily.

For my misfortune in the trip the pain and I had to go back to the emergency room, I was diagnosed with a complicated urinary infection that I had for many years. (Sepsis and Urinary Tract Infections) It is associated with a bacterium and that very possibly could also have calcifications in the kidneys and confirmed it. The tests that found not only calcifications in the kidneys but also in the urethra. The third day of being in the hospital I started to cough and spit blood, it gave me septic shock. I immediately had a failure of organs.

However, they managed to revive me and take me to intensive care where they began the fight to win the battle from death. Apart from the bacteria that had kidney stones they discovered another that destroyed my lungs so they had me connected to mechanical ventilation a lot time. I had three cardiac arrests and the last of eight minutes, I almost lost the kidney but managed to save it. I was a month and 15 days in intensive care fighting against three different bacteria because the last one was acquired by a nephrostomy catheter, a septic shock, three cardiac arrests and a multi-causal delirium as a direct sequel to the whole situation.

The faith of my family was so great that the doctors only explain that today this good thanks to a miracle. Today I thank both the timely attention and the struggle of the doctors that managed to save my life and God gave me another opportunity to continue and that’s why I share my story. Sepsis changes our lives forever is a silent disease but treated in time can make the difference between life and death.