Victoria Brandt

Survivor

I am 18, only 18 years old. There are so many things in life that I have yet to experience. I haven’t graduated high school, got married, went to college, or even hit my twenties yet. Last September I was diagnosed with sepsis. I had just got all four of my wisdom teeth pulled the weekend before, then all of the sudden I was seriously sick. I was throwing up and I couldn’t walk or stand. My mom and I thought it was maybe the flu, but it had been the weirdest case we had ever saw. I went to urgent care and the doctor diagnosed me with sepsis, and told me it had something to do with my surgery with my teeth. (Sepsis and Dental Health)

He gave me antibiotics and sent me home. The next morning I was not better, matter of fact I was much worse. My mom called my regular doctor and she said my symptoms are serious and that I needed to be rushed to the emergency room. I went through the admittance process and the doctors couldn’t seem to find out why I was so bad. They gave me antibiotics and kept giving me CTs. I was in the admission process for over half a day. I thought I was dying. My body was going into shock and my legs started first. I was shaking uncontrollably and couldn’t even think straight.

Soon after I got my room they decided to move me to step down from ICU. I was getting worse, and fast. They discovered I was in stage two of sepsis. I was getting closer and closer to the last stage faster and faster. They told my mom that she needed to research to better understand the severeness of my case. She was heartbroken. They had told her 18-year-old daughter that there was a chance she wasn’t going to make it out of the hospital alive. Here I was freshly 18, being told I wasn’t going to make it to 19. I was terrified. How was it that this infection that I had never heard of had shut down my body in less than a couple of days? How did this happen? How was it this serious and I had never even heard of what it was?

I wish I would have understood what it was, I would have never just gone home. I would have gone to the hospital instead, maybe it wouldn’t have been so severe if so. I’m a lucky one. I made it. I lived. Some people diagnosed with it aren’t near as lucky. I know how bad it hurt and how it felt when the doctors told me. I am doing everything I can to raise awareness and to let people know the signs. I hope that if enough people tell their story people will realize the seriousness of it and help donate and take action.

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