Victoria Bermudez

On February 10, my six-year-old Victoria was rushed to ER by ambulance, after a heaven-sent doctor from Urgent Care diagnosed that Victoria was very ill. Upon arriving to ER, Victoria had already tested positive for influenza A (Sepsis and Influenza) and strep A at the urgent facility.

Doctors planned to paralyze Victoria and intubate (place a “breathing tube”) to allow her left lung, which had a little pneumonia, to heal and move on. Victoria woke up during the procedure and threw up. This was followed by two cardiac arrests. Her organs began to fail. She was going into septic shock, due to the strep getting into her blood.

Once stable enough, Victoria was moved to ICU. Upon arrival doctors called Code Blue, she had yet another cardiac arrest. At this time doctors began to get extremely concerned. It turns out that the ER doctor administered Zithromax (antibiotic) straight into her vein, without waiting for labs to return. Once he received the labs, he realized that her white counts were extremely low, but it was too late to turn back time!

Since Victoria spent the entire night with 104 fevers and a heart rate of 175, the team of doctors agreed that her only chance of survival was placing her on an ECMO machine. At this time, my sister and I decided on transferring Victoria to Holtz at Jackson Memorial Hospital, one of the few hospitals in Miami that carry this machine. She spent 17 days on ECMO, 88 days in total between PICU and rehab. Furthermore, Victoria ran the risk of her right foot being amputated since it had become ischemic, but doctors at Jackson saved that too.

 

Two local news stories featured Victoria’s story:

Girl Recovers From Severe Pneumonia Thanks To ECMO Machine 

A remarkable recovery for Miami kindergartner near death from flu and strep

 

Read more about Sepsis and Children.

Source: by Judith Ferrer (Victoria's mother)