Kourtney N.

I was 24 weeks pregnant when my water broke. I’d been feeling pretty ill lately, but chalked it up to being a mom of two toddlers, while pregnant. (Sepsis and Pregnancy & Childbirth)

Once I arrived at the hospital they started us on antibiotics and assured me that my baby boy and I otherwise looked great. The next morning our lives changed forever. My son and I were not looking good at all. We were rushed into an emergency C section. Once I was in recovery I learned that my placenta was terribly infected and that I had moments to get to my newborn son before he passed on. He became our Angel soon after I got to him. He stayed with me that night and for whatever reason my vitals were stable and I was looking healthy. The next day I had to say my goodbyes.

Within 15 min of kissing my boy goodbye. I started violently shivering. My fever was 102. The started me on a series of antibiotics and I fought violent fevers ,sweats, temperatures going from 96-104 for two days. Til one night I painfully walked to the bathroom and the shivers got so bad I couldn’t walk back, I couldn’t breath. I called the nurses, what happened after was a blur. I wake up in a room full of nurses and doctors. I can’t breath and I’m sure I’m about to die. They gave me a medication that was supposed to put me out, but in reality it just immobilized me. I was intubated and had a central line put in. I felt it all but couldn’t move or say a thing. I was going on and out at this point. The next thing I knew I woke up in ICU still intubated. I got it removed later that night, but stayed on heavy oxygen and in ICU for 2 days. I was moved to a different floor to recover. Soon they realized, the infection wasn’t done and my incision was showing obvious signs of that. The doctors came and said they wanted to do another surgery to remove the infection. They’d save as much of my reproductive system as possible.

I woke up and learned I needed a total hysterectomy. My cervix and uterus had necrosis and there was hemorrhaging in my fallopian tubes. I slowly started to recover from surgery and focus of healing both physically and mentally, because that was a lot of trauma at one time. I’m currently almost 2 months post sepsis, there are many struggles we’re still working through, but I’m so thankful to be alive for my children and I work to spread awareness for our Angel boy, myself and everyone who’s been affected by sepsis.