Team Alix - Surviving Septic Shock
Donation protected
On Thursday, February 20th, at about 8:00 PM Alix was taken to the Indiana University Emergency room for a fever, weakness, & leg pain. She was immediately taken back, admitted, and moved to the ICU due to having ketoacidosis, a fever, difficulty breathing, poor kidney function, and low blood pressure that required pressers. The doctors choose to intubate her due to the difficulty breathing, and she was sedated due to the severe pain in her legs. The primary illness that Alix suffered was pneumonia, and the bacteria from the pneumonia spread to her blood, which caused sepsis. While IU had great care for Alix in the ICU, one complication of sepsis was blood clotting (DIC), which was also preventing blood flow from going to her feet. Alix's skin was not getting the oxygen that it needed, and that was causing blisters to form that were opening up.
On Saturday, February 22nd Alix was airlifted from IU Health in Lafayette to Eskenazi hospital in Indianapolis to be treated in the burn unit. There, her family was given the shocking and horrifying news that the doctors were concerned about whether or not she would pull through, and if she did, she would be an amputee due to the lack of blood flow to her extremities. At Eskenazi, her doctors were able to see that her feet were not getting a pulse, and the pulses in her wrists were very weak. Her hands and her feet were very cold to the touch, and this brought great concern to family and friends that were surrounding her.
Alix pulled through, and about two days later, on Monday, February 24th the doctors informed the family that they were confident that Alix would recover. This was a slow process of using cooling blankets to keep her fever down, using pressors to keep her blood pressure up, giving insulin to keep her insulin levels down, and administering antibiotics for the infection. The following days are a blur of constantly hearing that her kidneys were doing better, the infection was getting better, her blood pressure was more stable, and her lungs were eventually clear of the infection. The docs were able to target the specific bacteria that were identified, so that has helped tremendously for her recovery. Since Alix's blisters were opening up, the burn team began the process of adding dressings to her body where her wounds were exposed.
She was taken off of the pressors on February 24th, her cultures came back clean of bacteria on February 25th, on the 29th Alix slowly built up the strength to breath on her own, and on March 2nd, Alix was extubated. When she woke up, her family had a lot of explaining to do.
The blood flow did not return to her extremities, which caused dead tissue to form on her hands and on her feet. She is still in the burn unit due to extensive wounds that have required debriding (cleaning out dead skin/tissue), and unfortunately, her hands and feet had to be amputated. The surgical team had to wait patiently while Alix's body healed enough to be able to undergo surgery. She went into surgery on Friday, March 6th for grafting, and then she had surgery on Tuesday, March 10th to have her arms amputated at about the wrist and her legs amputated at about the mid-calf.
Being in the ICU has affected Alix and her family financially. She is an IU nurse and a Mother of two beautiful girls, Brooklyn (7) and Maddie (3). Any donations given will be greatly appreciated and will be used for medical bills and household bills.
If you would like to send Alix cards, you can address the envelope to "Burn Unit- Gerringer", and send it to Eskenazi hospital: 720 Eskenazi Ave, Indianapolis, IN 46202.
Thank you for all your support. With love, Nicole (Alix's sister)
On Saturday, February 22nd Alix was airlifted from IU Health in Lafayette to Eskenazi hospital in Indianapolis to be treated in the burn unit. There, her family was given the shocking and horrifying news that the doctors were concerned about whether or not she would pull through, and if she did, she would be an amputee due to the lack of blood flow to her extremities. At Eskenazi, her doctors were able to see that her feet were not getting a pulse, and the pulses in her wrists were very weak. Her hands and her feet were very cold to the touch, and this brought great concern to family and friends that were surrounding her.
Alix pulled through, and about two days later, on Monday, February 24th the doctors informed the family that they were confident that Alix would recover. This was a slow process of using cooling blankets to keep her fever down, using pressors to keep her blood pressure up, giving insulin to keep her insulin levels down, and administering antibiotics for the infection. The following days are a blur of constantly hearing that her kidneys were doing better, the infection was getting better, her blood pressure was more stable, and her lungs were eventually clear of the infection. The docs were able to target the specific bacteria that were identified, so that has helped tremendously for her recovery. Since Alix's blisters were opening up, the burn team began the process of adding dressings to her body where her wounds were exposed.
She was taken off of the pressors on February 24th, her cultures came back clean of bacteria on February 25th, on the 29th Alix slowly built up the strength to breath on her own, and on March 2nd, Alix was extubated. When she woke up, her family had a lot of explaining to do.
The blood flow did not return to her extremities, which caused dead tissue to form on her hands and on her feet. She is still in the burn unit due to extensive wounds that have required debriding (cleaning out dead skin/tissue), and unfortunately, her hands and feet had to be amputated. The surgical team had to wait patiently while Alix's body healed enough to be able to undergo surgery. She went into surgery on Friday, March 6th for grafting, and then she had surgery on Tuesday, March 10th to have her arms amputated at about the wrist and her legs amputated at about the mid-calf.
Being in the ICU has affected Alix and her family financially. She is an IU nurse and a Mother of two beautiful girls, Brooklyn (7) and Maddie (3). Any donations given will be greatly appreciated and will be used for medical bills and household bills.
If you would like to send Alix cards, you can address the envelope to "Burn Unit- Gerringer", and send it to Eskenazi hospital: 720 Eskenazi Ave, Indianapolis, IN 46202.
Thank you for all your support. With love, Nicole (Alix's sister)
Fundraising team (2)
Nicole Lee
Organizer
Oak Forest, IL
Alixandra Gerringer
Team member
