Linda Jones

My mom , Linda Marie Jones, passed away suddenly and unexpectedly from septic shock on Sunday, June 23, 2024. She went to two hospitals between June 19th-June 21st for back pain, and was misdiagnosed at both. The first hospital she went to on Wednesday (June 19th) released her early Thursday morning, despite her urine showing a possible UTI, pending cultures. (Sepsis and Urinary Tract Infections) She should not have been released. Those doctors should have done a further workup and put 2 and 2 together and realized something was more critical than just general back pain, giving her symptoms, age, and urinalysis results.

Later in the day, on Thursday, she went to another hospital that also misdiagnosed her with general back pain. By this point, I knew something wasn’t right and wanted to take my mom to another hospital for a third opinion, but she was confused and didn’t want to go. UTIs can create confusion in patients 65 and older. As I gave her the muscle relaxant and Tylenol the doctor from the ER prescribed, I noticed her body was very warm to the touch, her skin was clammy, and she was sweating and seemed to be very tired. I should have never doubted myself. I should have convinced her to go to a third hospital for another opinion and further workup. By the time she made it back to the second hospital on the evening of Friday, June 21st, it was too late. She was deteriorating, already septic, and experiencing acute kidney injury with a high creatinine level.

Early Saturday morning (June 22nd) I get a call from the ICU saying my mom was in critical condition had to be ventilated in the ER and I needed to get there quickly. I lived an hour a way and got there as fast as I could within 2 hours but notified family that was closer to go immediately, and I will be on my way.

The doctors in the ICU kept misdiagnosing her as well saying she had a stroke , vasculitis , stage 4 lung cancer, pneumonia despite me trying to tell them she more than likely had pyelonephritis (a kidney infection). By this time, I found her discharge papers from the 1st hospital and seen possible UTI , pending cultures, 48 hr hold, under the urinalysis they did. I tried advocating for my mom as much as possible and I wish I would have done more to save her. I am a pharmacist but those doctors in the ICU failed to listen to me and kept arguing with me, even though I was right from the beginning, and they were wrong.

Saturday late afternoon, my mom was stable on vasopressors to raise her blood pressure, and also was on antibiotics so I decided to leave to go eat and go back home to pack some clothes to come be with my mom. Someone from my family was there when I was gone. Things got worse as I was on my way back and one of my aunts called and said I needed to get back to the hospital immediately. The doctors said her condition wasn’t improving despite treatment. After an hour or so, she seemed to be stable again (on vasopressors to increase her BP) and it was getting close to visiting hours ending, so I left for the night to come back to my mom’s house (about 15 mins away from the hospital) to get some rest. Around 11pm, I received another call from the hospital and was told she was very critical, her blood pressure kept dropping despite treatment with maximum vasopressors to treat it and she had multi organ failure. I needed to get there as soon as possible. I called my family to inform them, and I left and got to the hospital immediately.

It hurts to type this and it with great sadness that I say on 6/23/24 at approximately 12:06 am.She coded 2 times in front of me but a total of 4 times leaving me heartbroken and devastated as this was preventable. She was not sick and did not have any chronic conditions like cancer, HIV, heart disease, diabetes or uncontrolled hypertension.

The bottom line is that the 1st hospital dropped the ball. Due the fact that she was complaining about back pain, which a kidney infection could manifest as (and she did indeed have an acute kidney injury), her urinalysis showed possible bacteria, they should have run blood tests and not released her. The second hospital also should have done further workup and listened to me.

I am sharing her story to spread awareness and also to decrease the chances of this happening to others. When a person is septic, they must be giving antibiotics, antivirals, or antifungals and appropriate fluids immediately and no later than 6 hrs to increase their chances of survival .

Source: Kiandra Arnold, Daughter