We had hoped he would recover, but knew it would take a miracle. The next ten days were a nightmare as he fought for his life in the Critical Care Unit. The doctors said his infection was caused by pneumonia and/or a urinary tract infection, both of which he didn’t know he had, and had disguised themselves as the flu when he began throwing up the day before. We weren’t sure if my grandfather would live through the night. ( Sepsis and DIC) This caused damage to all of his internal organs. They spent the day trying to keep his blood pressure high enough because he was experiencing disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC), a complication of sepsis, and was bleeding and making blood clots internally. At the ER, they put him on life support and said he was in septic shock. On the way to the hospital (only 2 miles away), he became unresponsive and had to have a breathing tube inserted. As they were loading him onto the gurney, he looked like he was having a seizure. Paramedics took my grandfather’s temperature and it was 107 degrees. He got up and dressed himself but got really weak and couldn’t get back up to get into the car to go to the ER. They decided to take my grandfather to the emergency room, thinking he was dehydrated. At noon, his family took his vital signs because he seemed so sick, and they found his pulse to be elevated and blood pressure low. On, my grandfather felt very tired, but he thought it was from being up all night vomiting. He threw up at his desk, so he took the day off work and thought he had either eaten something bad the day before or was coming down with the flu. My grandfather woke up and got dressed for work. On, our family’s life and his would change forever. On, my grandfather was at his new house working in his barn to set up his woodshop. In June 2013, he had just purchased a dream house where he planned to have fun with all of his grandkids. He worked at Blue Shield and had been married to my grandmother for 33 years. My grandfather, Noel Whitman, was a healthy 61-year-old who loved to golf, do woodwork, and hunt.
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