Author: Carine Nelissen

Septic shock due to peritonitis

I am Angélique Dammer a woman of 52 years. In September 2022, my husband and I took our boat sailing towards Purmerend. Moored at Purmerend, ordered some food, watched some TV and then went to bed. My husband always lies with the dogs in the front part of the boat and I lie in the tip of the boat (my husband still snores sometimes, hence the name).

That night I developed terrible abdominal pain but also a fever, which was new. The abdominal pain resembled the pain I had a year before when I had my breasts preventively removed with reconstruction because of a BRCA-2 gene, then I got constipation in my intestines.

I am Kathleen. A 38-year-old woman, primary school teacher and mother of two young children.

On 27 February, I don't feel very well in the morning. Fatigue, muscle and joint pains and general malaise play tricks on me. Later that day, I gradually develop a fever. By evening, I start shivering heavily. I pick up the children from school and day-care and ask my husband to be home on time. Meanwhile, I feel very sick. With antipyretic medication, I get the pain and fever somewhat under control. I inform my sister because I don't trust it. She is a nurse and often assists me with advice. The night is difficult. 

I live on the edge of a nature reserve with my husband and three sons. My hobbies are walking, running and good food. My story began with a tumour in my right breast. Four days after my first chemo, I stumbled into A&E with severe abdominal pain. I was immediately operated on. 'The inhuman pain the day after surgery was normal,' the doctor said, 'within a week you will be home'. The seven foreseen days turned into four hundred and eighty-seven.

Monday, March 7, 2022, the first day of a new working week went normally until I developed a nasty abdominal/stomach pain shortly after noon. As the pain did not go away, I called the abdominal surgery service of a nearby hospital. There, I was advised to come in through the emergency room.