Whether you suffered a hospital-acquired infection or contracted an infection after a surgical procedure, you ended up suffering from sepsis. It became so bad that you ended up staying in the hospital even longer in order to receive aggressive treatment.
When doctors released you from the hospital with a clean bill of health, you hoped that your ordeal was finally over. Unfortunately, you started to experience odd symptoms.
You could suffer from post-sepsis syndrome
Sepsis can wreak havoc on your body. Hopefully, your condition did not require an amputation or cause you to suffer damage to internal organs such as the liver or kidneys. You may have trouble breathing due to damage to your lungs. The less concrete health issues that you may suffer continue to baffle medical researchers, such as chronic pain, extreme fatigue or even hair loss. Some of the other symptoms and/or issues you may suffer from include the following:
- Depression
- Difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep
- Loss of self-esteem
- Nightmares
- Decreased mental function
- Hallucinations
- Difficulty concentrating
- Panic attacks
- Disabling pain in the joints or muscles
If you experienced one or more of these issues after surviving sepsis, you could be part of the nearly 50% of people who suffer from post-sepsis syndrome. You may get lucky and only experience these symptoms temporarily, but more than likely, they could plague you for the rest of your life.
Did medical personnel let you down?
A thorough review of your medical records could provide a clue to why you ended up in this position. Somewhere along the way, a doctor, nurse or other medical staff failed to provide you with the appropriate standard of care. Perhaps a surgical instrument was not properly sterilized, you contracted an infection at the surgical site, you contracted an internal infection or contracted a hospital-acquired infection.
In any case, you did not receive the proper monitoring for infection, which led to you ending up with sepsis. Now, you may suffer effects for the rest of your life. If the appropriate evidence exists, you could file a medical malpractice claim, pursuing compensation for your past, current and future medical and other needs connected to what happened. This type of case is one of the most challenging. Fortunately, you do not have to go through it alone.