Blood Infection & High Fever

Answer 1

My friend is in hostptail shes in the third stage with sepsis her hands are turning totally black why is she dieing how long does a person have to live with that going on

Comments

Hands turning black - a venous return problem? May consult a vascular surgeon.

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It really depends. She's having a very severe sepsis. Sepsis needs early aggressive treatment, I guess your friend didn't seek medical help until she's very sick.

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IV VItamin C therapy; evidence to pull someone out of sepsis.  I even had a patient at City of Hope with life threatening sepsis and 1.5 gm vitamin C IV (per research evidence) pulled her out of it, though more grams would have even been better.

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Would you recommend vitamin c on a regular basis to help prevent sepsis in someone who has been just diagnosed with strep in the blood

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It's true, circulating levels of vitamin C (ascorbate) are low in patients with sepsis. Parenteral administration of ascorbate raises plasma and tissue concentrations of the vitamin and may decrease morbidity.

I think Ms. Wren's friend is in ICU, she is taken care of by professionals.

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Vitamin C is good in preventing infection, and boost immune, it may also raise the risk of kidney stones. Vitamin C from foods is more recommended, make sure your friend take enough Vitamin C from fresh fruits. Kiwi and orange contain the highest Vitamin C, all types of berries are all good choices.

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Her black hands are probably caused by gangree induced by bacterial emboli. I wondered what is the extent of the gangree? If the patient's condition is stable and the gangree area is large, then an amputation may be necessary.

Answer 2

I am a physician. All the talk of vitamin C is not really the issue. Clearly this patient has gangrene of her hands which means that her hands or part of them are already dead and need to be amputated. Any infection in a setting like this cannot be dealt with by the body because there is no blood supply, even with massive doses of antibiotics. Secondly blood cultures are important not only for identification of which bacteria or other type of infection is causing the problem. All cultures done on patients are tested against antibiotics which suppress the growth of the infection. In this day and age, there is no guarantee that an antibiotic that usually kills the bug that's causing the patient's illness will actually kill the bacteria that's in the patient because of antibiotic resistance. The classic example of this is MRSA which is methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus, an infection which has been in the news for a couple of decades now. Lastly, a patient this sick will not be helped by vitamin C because likely they have developed other complications of sepsis such as what is called septic shock. These patients get in trouble with very low blood pressures, problems maintaining their blood oxygen level and numerous other complications to say nothing of spread of the infection. There is no need or even consideration for vitamin C in this clinical setting. It will not save the patient's life. She needs surgery at this point more than anything else now.

Answer 3

Your friend may be on vasopressors such as levophed or epinephrine. These drugs raise the blood pressure by taking the blood volume from the extremities and concentrating on the core in order to keep the body alive. People who are severely septic have low blood pressure and require these meds and fluids in order to stay alive but unfortunately toes and fingers may become necrotic and lost in the process