I lost all my toes, a hand and some fingers after pneumonia turned into deadly septic shock
WHEN Racheal Acuff noticed blood in her pee, she thought it was little more than a kidney infection and took herself straight to hospital.
But within a matter of hours she had quickly deteriorated and she had to be sedated for more than a month after going into septic shock.
At one point, while under heavy sedation the 32-year-old, from Missouri, USA, could even hear her family saying their final goodbyes as doctors feared the worst.
Even when she pulled through, her ordeal wasn't over as she was told she'd need her hand, toes and parts of her fingers amputated.
The mum-of-two first went to hospital on June 19 last year after spotting blood in her urine.
She said: "I had no symptoms of pneumonia and I only knew of the kidney infection when I peed blood.
“Once I got to the hospital everything started happening really fast after they took my blood pressure which was so low it almost didn’t register.
"They moved me to a room right away and began running a list of tests.
“The last thing I remember was being told they were moving me upstairs and then I was sedated for three weeks."
Septic shock
During this time, Racheal’s family were called into the hospital to say their final goodbyes, but to their surprise weeks later she woke up.
She was told she had had gone into septic shock from pneumonia, which led to a blood clotting disorder known as disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC).
Racheal also suffered toxic shock syndrome (TSS) from an unknown source and her kidneys were not working so she was put on dialysis.
She said: "When I woke up my mum explained to me that I had septic shock, DIC and toxic shock syndrome from an unknown source.
“I was on a ventilator which was helping me breathe, a feeding tube for all my nutrients, a port-a-cath for my dialysis because my kidneys were no longer working and two IVs for access for blood and to give me all my meds.
“I remember hearing my family cry when the doctors told them to bring in family to say their last goodbyes, but I was sedated and had no way to respond to them.
"I felt totally helpless but I knew I had to fight to prove them wrong. I didn’t feel like I was dying, and I wasn’t going to."
Ongoing ordeal
Racheal was in an intensive care unit for nearly six weeks before being moved to another unit for a further eight days.
She spent two-weeks at an inpatient rehabilitation facility where she learnt to walk again before she was allowed to go home in August.
But Racheal’s sepsis ordeal still wasn’t over as doctors said her extremities had been so damaged from a lack of blood flow that they'd have to amputate.
On August 29, 2018, she had the dead parts of four of her fingers on her left hand removed.
A couple of weeks later, the dead tissue on all five fingers on her right hand were amputated before another operation to remove 10 of her toes.
What are the signs of sepsis you should never ignore?
If you, a loved one, or in the case of medical professionals their patient, feels "severely sick", doesn't appear to be themselves and shows any of the following symptoms, sepsis should be suspected:
- weakness
- loss of appetite
- fever and chills
- thirst
- difficult or rapid breathing
- rapid heart rate
- low blood pressure
- low urine output
If a person is suffering these symptoms and they are thought to have suffered an infection - pneumonia, abdominal infection, urinary infection, or a wound - sepsis is a likely cause.
Earlier this year, she had to have more surgery to remove the little finger on her right hand and a trans-radial amputation of her right hand two inches above the wrist.
Racheal said: “The recovery process of sepsis was long and discouraging but in the end it gave me strength I didn’t know I had.
"The recovery of each surgery was different with my foot surgery being the worst, I couldn’t walk on them for three weeks and it was very painful.
“My most recent hand amputation has been difficult in that I lost a whole hand, lucky for me I’m left-handed and they took my right but it’s still different.
"I’m starting to adapt until I get my new hand in a few weeks."
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Racheal says her near fatal experience means she no longer takes life for granted.
She said: “I soak up every moment good and bad and never take life for granted.
"It’s such a special gift you’ve been given so live it well, because you’ll never know when it could be taken away from you, and when it’s real bad remember, it’s just a bad day not a bad life.”
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