When sepsis strikes!

It’s been a while since I felt this way, but I feel like a proper nurse this week!

I’ve been back on the wards now for a couple of weeks with no distractions (apart from Matt, my mother and the never-ending saga that is Brexit), and it’s been really good to reconnect with my ladies on Eden Bay.

We’ve had some right characters of late, which is fab because it helps me to get to know each person as an individual. I’m determined not to start talking about patients in terms of bed numbers or conditions – I learnt my lesson with that one last year!
I know we’re not supposed to have favourites but Gloria and Claire are contenders for this title at the moment. They have such stories to tell about their lives, despite being poorly, that they keep the rest of the bay thoroughly entertained.

Gloria was an army wife who travelled the world with her husband for a million years. She tells the most hilarious stories about what they used to get up to, including tales about how he used to go to ‘happy hour’ on a Friday and roll in steaming drunk. She says that many a time she used to hose him down in the garden to sober him up – and then would leave him there til morning!

Claire was a teacher who never married but fostered hundreds of children. I kind of thought that would make her lonely during her twilight years, but how wrong was I? She has visitors every single day, and every one of them is one of the kids she opened her home and heart to, all bringing their own kids to see her in her time of need. Despite her diagnosis of cancer, she’s always looking out for the other patients, offering them reassurance when they get upset.

In fact, it was Claire who called me over one morning. She said she didn’t want to make a fuss, but she was a bit worried about Gloria. Apparently, she hadn’t been her usual boisterous self and seemed a bit under the weather. I told Claire that I would pop across to her and wondered off to get the gubbins to do her obs.

Claire wasn’t wrong. Gloria seemed to be really off colour. She’d been admitted after having a fall at home but had seemed to be on the mend – in fact, we’d been at the stage of planning her discharge so I was surprised to see her this way.

I took her observations and studied the results. Something in the back of my brain starting pinging away, like a little alarm bell going off. There was definitely something wrong, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. Her pulse was racing but her BP was low and her breathing was quite rapid. I spoke to her but she didn’t seem to realise that I was there. I checked her charts and this was a definite change for Gloria. We were supposed to be monitoring her urine output too, but it looked like we hadn’t recorded anything for the past 13 hours.
And then it came to me – the alarm bell pinging quietly at the back of my brain, suddenly took on the voice of Big Ben, ringing in my ears.

Gloria was showing strong signs of sepsis and I needed to act immediately.

Without causing alarm to the other patients, including Claire who hadn’t taken her eyes off me, I swiftly went to find Steve. I explained as quickly as I could that I thought Gloria had developed sepsis and that she needed urgent medical help. He came across and repeated the obs; he then called the Registrar who ordered an urgent set of bloods to be done. Steve set up an IV for fluids and we waited for the blood results to come back. During all of this poor Gloria seemed to be completely unaware of anything that was going on around her.

Everything happened so quickly after that. The blood results came in and Gloria was whisked away to HDU. She wasn’t my patient anymore but Claire and the other ladies were and I spent the rest of the shift basically making sure that they were ok. Gloria had been such a big part of their day, and they missed her. They were also worried sick, as was I.

Steve took me to one side before I went off duty. He told me I had done a fabulous job acting so swiftly and that I should feel very proud of myself. On reflection, I felt a bit shaky. I only recognised the signs because Carla had sent me on the sepsis course a few weeks ago. What if I hadn’t, and just thought Gloria was a bit off colour?

I found out the following day that Gloria hadn’t made it. The infection had invaded her body so rapidly that she didn’t stand a chance.

I was gutted.

I broke the news to Claire who shed a silent tear. She told me that Gloria had shared so much with her in the short time that they had known each other, including how difficult she had found it to have to place her husband in a nursing home, after the life they had led together.

We cried together me and Claire. I felt I’d let Gloria down and Claire felt she had lost her new friend before they’d had a chance to get to know each other properly.
Claire reminded me that life was short and could be whipped away in a heartbeat.
So, I’m determined to make the most of every moment – to love, laugh and cry at every opportunity.
And although today has been a day for tears, I’m sure tomorrow will bring a smile or two.