Kathy T.

After having major back surgery and being discharged to home, I developed sepsis. (Sepsis and Surgery)

A lot of circumstances lead up to this, but I won’t elaborate further. I was home and felt well for 2 days. Third day not so well and the fourth day the homecare nurse was coming to take my staples out. When she arrived, I was feeling really weak, disoriented, very thirsty and was vomiting. My blood pressure was 77/44. And I had a raging fever. She had my husband rush me into the hospital. We didn’t wait for the ambulance.

I went unconscious just after we arrived and was out til the next morning when the doctors were finally able to stabilize me for the ambulance trip back to the hospital where I had my surgery. There I had my surgical site reopened and flushed, then packed with antibiotic pellets and reclosed. Then onto IV antibiotics for 7 weeks and am now on oral antibiotics for a year or more. From there, I don’t know yet as I’m still on the oral antibiotics. I have been told if the Ecoli returns, I will have to have all the screws and rods removed from my back surgery because that’s where the Ecoli will be.

I’m 73 years old and very lucky to be alive. So far, I have noticed my eyesight is affected, I am very weak,I have a lot of brain fog and not very steady on my feet.

Before all this happened I was an avid gardener and loved being active. I board dogs with my husband, on our farm. but now I’m not much help. I want to tell people going for surgery to be hyper aware of what goes on around you and and how you feel. If you think you have a UTI demand a test, don’t accept “just drink more water” as I did. Had I realized UTIs and E.coli run hand in hand I certainly would have been insisting on a test. If you are running a fever, as I was, don’t accept just Tylenol without an explanation for your fever.

The absolute best scenario is to have a knowledgeable person as your advocate while you are in hospital. Insist that you have a physician to talk to, not a nurse who doesn’t remember to tell him what I asked.
Petition your MP and MLA for rules concerning what patients should be aware of about sepsis before their surgery. Thank you.