Endocarditis caused by Mssa

[Summer-1949]

A Question for anyone in the public, doctors or consultants also. How long can you live with endocarditis caused by a staph infection Mssa to be precise? I've read up to 4 weeks.

[MichaelJH Heart Star]

Hello and welcome to the forum!

Please bear in mind I am not medically qualified but my understanding is that recovery from the infection takes 2 - 3 months with maybe twice as long to get back to normal. For a better answer I would suggest you call the BHF nurses tomorrow. Let us know what they say.

[Summer-1949 in reply to MichaelJH]

Hi thankyou Michael. my brother had stage 5 kidney failure and was on Dialysis 3 times a week they found he had Mssa 4 weeks prior to his death and forgot treatment. He died of sepsis endocarditis and septicemia. we didn't find out he had Mssa till after he died. They discovered it from a nasal swab, like I say 4 weeks prior to his death. he started with chest pain a few days after they found he had Mssa. I personally think it spread to his heart first then multiplied causing sepsis everywhere else. I wanted to know if you can live for 4 weeks with bacteraemia in the heart. I've read you can but it's fatal if not treated. Which he wasn't and died.

[Cat04 in reply to Summer-1949]

My father was taken ill and diagnosed with infective endocarditis and sepsis (due to mssa) on the day he was due to go home from hospital where he had been admitted to treat a urine infection. He died 6 weeks later, he never got to go back home.

[Summer-1949 in reply to Cat04]

I'm so sorry Cat04 sending my condolences

[Cat04 in reply to Summer-1949]

Thank you, and to you x

[Raysdaughter in reply to Cat04]

Hi Cat, similar to my Father. He was awaiting a TOE test that kept being delayed to investigate Sepsis impact to endocarditis and the morning of the surgery he had a severe stroke and passed away a week later. He was absolutely fine one minute, walking around chatting then we got a call from the hospital ...our lives have changed forever. It was a silent killer that we didn't know enough about. Also with Sepsis how important it is for early detection of endocarditis with a false valve. If anyone is going through this all I can say is fight for a TOE asap, don't let them push it back or wait. Without it's early detection you're losing precious time. We were pushed back due to high INR levels but they should have still done it earlier, within days not weeks.

[Cat04 in reply to Raysdaughter]

Sorry to hear of your loss. My father was walking around in the ward, laughing and waving his walking stick in the air as he was waiting to be picked up to go home. Then I got 'the call' and he was in cardiac care by the time i got to the hosp.. Life ended all to suddenly.

[Captain_Birdseye]

How long can someone live with MSSA induced sepsis/endocarditis without treatment?

It'll depend on the individual... if someone was otherwise healthy, they might be able to fight it off for longer than someone with health complications. Reading online will give you a general idea, but it really is down to the individual body in the end.

I'm sorry to hear about your brother.

[Summer-1949 in reply to Captain_Birdseye]

Thankyou Captain Birdeye. The time frame from when they found out he had a staph infection to death is approximately 4 weeks but the Mssa may not have got into the blood stream till 2 weeks before he died. But I have a feeling it was 4 weeks as he was complaining of severe chest pain 3 days after they found he had Mssa.