How is this possible?
My grandfather recently passed away after what started as a knee injury and surgery, and I'm struggling to understand how everything went so wrong. I'm hoping people with medical experience or personal experience with sepsis can help me understand what might have happened.
He was 82 years old, diabetic, and had a history of a heart attack followed by bypass surgery about 17 years ago. He was living in Kolkata, India, and received treatment at what we considered one of the best hospitals there.
Here is the sequence of events as I understand it:
- Knee injury and surgery: He fell and injured/fractured his knee, requiring surgery. Following the surgery, he developed complications, including significant diarrhea and hyponatremia (low sodium), apparently associated with the diarrhea.
- Initial recovery: He was treated and eventually discharged. He seemed to be recovering, which made us think he was getting better.
- Leg inflammation returned: After discharge, his leg became inflamed again. We took him to a doctor, but they changed some of his medications rather than recommending anything more extensive or immediately sending him back to the hospital.
- Sudden deterioration: The following day, he became extremely weak and delirious. We took him back to the hospital. His condition deteriorated, and we were told he had developed sepsis, apparently associated with an infection related to his knee surgery.
- Organ failure: His blood pressure and oxygen levels became very low, and his kidneys began failing. He was put on dialysis and eventually required ventilation.
- Cardiac arrests: While receiving treatment, he suffered a cardiac arrest. He was resuscitated, but approximately 10 minutes later, he suffered a second cardiac arrest and passed away.
I'm devastated because he went in for a knee injury, and within a relatively short period, he was gone. I'm also struggling to understand how this could happen at a very good hospital, particularly when we sought medical attention as soon as we noticed his leg becoming inflamed again.
I have several questions:
- How can an infection following knee surgery progress to sepsis, even in a good hospital? Could it have originated in the surgical wound or around the knee, and how would it spread or trigger such a severe response?
I understand that nobody can determine exactly what happened without his medical records, and I'm not trying to accuse the hospital of malpractice based on incomplete information. I genuinely want to understand the medical mechanisms behind his death and whether this kind of progression can happen despite appropriate care.
If anyone has experienced something similar with a family member, or if any doctors, nurses, or sepsis survivors can explain what might have happened, I would be very grateful.
Thank you.