Sepsis Storms

Thanks to the siesta that sepsis had taken on Wednesday, I slept soundly that night. My mom also had a refreshing look on her face. Everything seemed alright.

At around 11 a.m., my mom realized that she hadn’t passed urine since she got up in the morning. She informed me and was worried about it. I pacified her by saying that as she had high temperatures and had also sweated a lot besides not taking enough liquids, she was dehydrated. I asked her to drink a glass of water. Later, Mrs. Kumar advised giving coconut water. She volunteered to get it as she was going to the temple. But, she took an age to return. I was angry. Anyhow, we gave the coconut water to my mom. No relief.

My mom didn’t have fever or chills. She only had slight body pain. Nothing seemed unusual. But, she was getting tense as she was not able to pass urine. I called up our family physician. He also advised giving her coconut water. It was lunch time. We forced my mom to have lunch so that she could have her medicines. But, she wasn’t able to eat much. She was getting restless more and more. We put her to bed. She felt a little better. After sometime, she got up and went to the toilet to try to pass urine. But, she came out gasping for breath. Her heart was racing. She wasn’t able to speak.

My mom complained of upper back ache and asked me to massage it lightly. I did. She felt better. As I was supposed to go out for some work, my mom told me not to go anywhere and sit by her side. I assured her that I was not going anywhere leaving her in such a state. Mrs. Kumar informed me that my mom was not able to sleep peacefully last night. The whole night she was sighing and seemed to be in distress.

As my mom was feeling a little better after lying down for sometime, we thought of giving her a bath so that she could feel fresh and pouring warm water on her abdomen may also assist her to pass urine. Mrs. Kumar kept a stool in the bathroom to bathe my mom and also check whether pouring warm water on her abdomen helped her in passing urine or not. It didn’t.

After coming out from bath, my mom sat on the French window soaking in the sun for a few minutes. Then, Mrs. Kumar applied hair oil and started braiding my mom’s hair. But, even before she could finish braiding, my mom felt restless and asked her to stop. I escorted her to the bedroom while Mrs. Kumar kept braiding the hair and finished it when we reached the bed. I massaged her back and asked her if she would like me to take her to a hospital. She nodded. But, I wasn’t sure. Just then one of my cousins called up. He asked where we were as he had called at home and no one had answered. I told him that we were at a friend’s house. He thought that we were enjoying a holiday and said so. I told him that it was not as he thought. I told him that my mom was not well so we had come to our friend’s house. He told me to take care and hung up.

Finally, I decided to take my mom to a hospital, as she was gasping for breath and had not passed urine since she got up in the morning. I thought that at the hospital she would be put on oxygen and drips that would help her breathe properly and hydrate her allowing her to pass urine. This would improve her condition in a few hours and she may return home. I told her so and asked her once again if I should take her to a hospital. She agreed.

I got up and took out money from my mom’s purse while Mrs. Kumar took the house keys. We put on our slippers and rushed out. Although, we didn’t feel any urgency, this whole act of taking the decision and leaving the house for going to the hospital seemed to have happened in a blink. The hospital was right opposite the gate of the colony, but the distance from our building to the gate was long. So, Mrs. Kumar went to hire an autorickshaw.

At the hospital – a small polyclinic, in fact – my mom was connected to the regular medical apparatus that are used in cases of emergency. The resident medical officer came and checked my mom. Within a minute he turned around and asked me if I was her son. I replied in the affirmative. He asked me to follow him out of the room. I did so. He told that my mom’s condition was very critical and she had to be immediately put on a ventilator as her oxygen saturation level and blood pressure were critically low. He asked me to take her to a bigger hospital as they didn’t have ventilator facility.

The words “critical”, “ventilator” & “immediately” hit me in the head and started ringing alarm bells in my mind. As I said earlier, while we were at home, we didn’t feel there was any urgency. We just didn’t hurry up things. Still, it just didn’t take long for all this to happen – the taking of the decision to visit the hospital, the trip to the hospital, the hospitalization by the medical personnels and the doctor’s advice. It seemed everything happened in a minute. But, the urgency that I felt after the doctor reported my mom’s condition made me realize that I was running out of time and my mom out of breath. I had to take quick decisions.

The hospital that we usually visited and was just 3 kilometers away from our old house was now 30 kilometers far. This small hospital didn’t have an ambulance. I had never arranged one before. Cab would take nearly 2 hours. It was evening rush hours. And, it would be foolish to take someone running out of breath so far after a doctor’s advice for immediate ventilation.

There was a bigger hospital just half a kilometer away. But, neither Mrs. Kumar nor we knew about its credentials. Time now seemed to be rushing away. It wasn’t allowing us to contemplate any other options. It seemed to warn us that we had to take her to this nearby hospital or else. The doctor, I and Mrs. Kumar just succumbed to this exigency and decided to shift her to this hospital. As also to the only means of transportation readily available i.e. an autorickshaw.

From the decision taken at home to take my mom to hospital to the hiring of an autorickshaw to take her to another one, all seemed to have happened in a minute. Were we ahead of time or did we lose precious time? Only time could tell.


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