Partner in ICU for 20 days after severe burns, septic shock, SIRS and ARDS

[Enygma]

Hey guys, I would like to hear from the people with similar experiences here. My fiance suffered severe burn injuries TBSA 50% with inhalation injury. He suffered mostly second and third degree burns (3dg only on lungs and one hand) and his recovery was looking good until 3rd day after admission. They have told us he fell into a septic shock because his blood pressure was as low as 110/56 with Tachy 145Bpm. It appeared worse until day 7th because his organs started to fail one by one. Lungs, liver, pancreas, only the bladder was spared. But they could not isolate the bacteria except some small amount of wound bacteria that they started treating the same day with antibiotics. He was getting huge doses pf Dormicum because he is also epileptic and probably has PTSD like mind state, but as soon as they put him on Haldol he immediately started getting better. They removed extra antibiptics that could damage his liver and the test came out better the day 15th. Before that they tried to get the tubus out from his throat but he couldnt breath for a minute (hyperventilation which doctors now see as a symptom of ARDS). They finally stabičized him the day 19 enough to do CT scans of all organs and try to extubate him but this time he lasted 3hrs until he went blue and needed to get back on the respirator. Yestetday they finally removed the tubus and did him a Tracheotomy. It seems like he breathes easier now. Respirator values are lower and heart rate is now about 130/73 even due to minimizing vasoconstrictor medicines (from 59mg h to 2 mg in 2 days and pressure remained stable). Bpm is now about 108. Seems like it wasnt a septic shock after all, just a SIRS but a weird one, as CT of organs show no lesions on liver, pancreas, kidneys or other organs except lungs which are moderately affected by the inhalation injury so the necrotic tissue appeared few times (they removed it by bronchoscopy). He still has fever 37.9-39.0 ebery day even due to administration of medicines. I am very worried about all this and the impossibility to find out what the hell is going on with his immune response because all they tell me that burns are getting rapidly better from the outside but its bad in the inside (lungs). He is 33 yo man, very healthy and active and smoked medicinal marijuana for 10yrs every day before the incident because of epilepsy. The fire was a house one, a can of ethanol burned and some furniture, then the cooling device exploded in his face. His face looks like new, no scarring at all. But they say the breathing part is still compromised. His doctor agreed to administer vit c and d through the food he is getting through his nose. I am sick with worry. What awaits us through all this? They tell me his chances of survival arr about 70% but i believr in the agr factor and his immune sYstem. I find Haldol and Midazolam administration very odd in this situation, they compromise the immune sYstem but they say he hyperventilates (probably due too shock). If anyone had a similar situation pls help me i am MAD WORRIED. Its been 3 weeks already

[Sepsur]

I hope your fiancé starts improving soon. I spent along time not improving enough to come off life support. Week 6, my family were robbed of all hope - despite that, I woke up 2 weeks later.

[Enygma in reply to Sepsur]

Thank you very much. I am so glad you managed to overcome this scary situation. He is finally awake, SIRS symptoms are getting less prominent, they performed one small skin grafting operation on him so I guess they stabilized him since I last wrote here. But he is still on his respirator, it worries me like hell, his breathing is compromised and will be for some time obviously, even they did him a Tracheo. Thanks again for your reply as it gave me strength and hope through this difficult times.

[Mairap in reply to Enygma]

Hi ! How is your boyfriend now? My case was pretty similar. And my lungs now are very damaged