Whether you underwent a surgical procedure, suffered a cut or suffered an internal infection, you expect the medical staff at the hospital to properly monitor you in order to make sure that you don’t contract an infection or that an existing one does not get worse. Sadly, many people at hospitals here in New Mexico and elsewhere end up with a serious, and sometimes life-threatening, condition called sepsis, which can happen if an infection is undiagnosed and untreated.
The sooner your doctor diagnoses your sepsis, the more likely that treatment will work as intended. If doctors fail to timely diagnose the condition, it could progress into a severe health situation in which you could spend time in the ICU. You may recover from sepsis and go home unaware that your life may never be the same again.
Post-sepsis syndrome
Your doctor may have neglected to tell you that your bout of sepsis could result in adverse health consequences that may last a lifetime. Obviously, if your experience with sepsis resulted in an amputation, your life will require certain changes. However, if you did not experience this consequence, then you may go home thinking that you dodged a bullet and will be fine. That is, until you experienced one or more of the following:
- Loss of self-belief or self-esteem
- Difficulty getting to sleep
- Difficulty staying asleep
- Insomnia
- Decreased mental function
- Vivid hallucinations
- Nightmares
- Panic attacks
- Poor concentration
- Disabling joint and muscle pains
- Extreme fatigue
- Hair loss
- Post-traumatic stress disorder
As is the case with most conditions, some people will experience PSS more often than others will. Older people and people who spent time in the ICU tend to suffer from it more often. This condition results from damage to the organs and other bodily systems due to a serious case of sepsis, so the instances of PSS will vary. Management of these issues may be the only help you may receive from the medical community.
The help should have come sooner
Doctors may help you manage your PSS, but they should have provided you with the appropriate standard of care before you contracted sepsis in the first place. An early diagnosis and the right treatment might have spared you the health repercussions you now experience. Depending on the circumstances, you may not be able to return to work, you may have to make substantial changes to your life in order to function, and your financial situation could become dire.
You may have a claim for medical malpractice. In order to know for sure, you may want to schedule a consultation with an attorney experienced in these types of cases.
