Kenny

Kenny 40 years Sepsis after Streptococcal infection

26 January 2023 I contracted a bacterial cold due to a sick employee. From my own knowledge, I knew antibiotics were the only thing that could help me. However by the GP no written. The first 2 days passed and at first there was a slight improvement, but on afterwards I felt that this was getting worse and made another appointment with the GP. The day of the appointment ( 31/1/2023) my mother came by and saw that something was wrong and took me straight to A&E.

Once there, I slowly felt the energy seeping out of my body and all I felt like doing was lying down and sleeping. All I remember in A&E was a CT scan. After that, the lights went out.

On 27 February, I opened my eyes again and lay in ICU with a Christmas tree of tubes, devices and medication. Only then was I told this by the specialist:

"Your cold had evolved into pneumonia due to streptococcal infection. Due to the still unknown reason, this infection got into your blood a caused septic shock which caused vital organs to fail 1 by 1 and I had a fever of 40° for 10 days. By all means, we tried to bring it down through ventilators and bags of ice. Only after a double lung operation for drains to be inserted did it start to drop. So you spent three weeks in an artificial coma. It was fighting between life and death."

This made my mind run wild for a moment. I had crawled through the eye of the needle. The worst was yet to come. The realisation that you had lost everything at that moment physically and mentally. All the muscle strength of the past 40 years was just gone. Writing was not possible to very difficult. Every movement took strength and standing on your legs was not possible without the help of 2 people.

The last week in ICU I did make rapid progress and was soon able to move to the regular sick ward where I stayed for another week. I left the hospital on 7 March 2023 and began the long rehabilitation that I am still following to this day. I suffered no visible damage (other than a scar from the surgery and tracheotomy for ventilation). Still, despite my young age, I must confess that endurance and strength are things that have to come back very long and slowly and may never regain the same level as before the disease. Internal damage is not known, though I feel certain things do not feel right, but the future will tell.

I had a lot of support from friends and family, which made me very resilient to survive this. Though this still haunts my mind at some more difficult times.

I also hope to make my contribution by, on the one hand, assisting or supporting fellow sufferers or families of fellow sufferers and, on the other hand, also using my story to demonstrate the importance of early diagnosis. Through my story, I want everyone to know that Sepsis cannot be underestimated and that more attention and research is needed. The more people hear our stories, the more attention will be paid to it. It can happen to anyone.

Kenny