Pancertis organ failure

My husband is currently in icu on a ventilator. He had severe pancertitis which now has turned into Nercorizing pancertitis. His kidneys and liver are failing however his heart is fine. He is being weaned slowly off the ventilator. The doctor called me in today and told me about the change in his pancertitis and the other side effects. They want to try and take him off the ventilator to see if he is able to breath on his own and if he is that it might jump start the rest of his organs. the doctor also wants pallative care to come in. I am hoping he will make it but if he is not able to breath on his own he will end up dying. He is very young only 37 years old. I am wondering if anyone has any similar stories with happy out comes like the patient living.

[Flossieb]

Oh my darlin you are having such a traumatic time ,not much but a virtual hug to you both and your family xx

[Zhanna1963]

I have same situation with my son. He is now 13 days in CCU on life support. Please think only positive and never talk about death! He need your strength! Hope for better!

[Sepsur]

Necrotizing pancreatitis is very treatable. Treatments target the pancreatitis itself and then the dead or infected tissue. Wishing you and your family well. I survived heart, kidney & respiratory failure.

[Copse77]

Your husband has youth on his side. My younger brother survived respiratory and kidney failure caused by sepsis. They only trial off the ventilator for short controlled periods and will return the ventilation if needed. Remain hopeful is the best advice we were given by one kind consultant. I hope your husband recovers well.

[Videodragons]

Heart, lungs, liver and kidneys started packing up. Ventilator. Dialysis. Electric shock to heart. And here I am 4 years later. Thinking of you both, and good luck.

[Drewlyn in reply to Videodragons]

Can I ask, my partner is 3 years virtually to the day, with virtually same situation have you recovered full strength, he still suffers from over does things!,,

[Videodragons in reply to Drewlyn]

Hi Drewlyn. No, I haven't recovered *full* strength. But then I'm 72.

However, I have got slightly stronger each year. I guess it depends what you mean by "over does things"!!

[maryBB]

The will to survive is very strong. My cousin (>70) had multi-system organ failure. As a nurse, I knew this was really bad. Amazingly She pulled through & now many years later she’s still active & in a walking club. Keep the faith.

[jimsplingley]

Hi,

I had necrotising pancreatitis where I was admitted to ICU in April last year (2019). I was on a ventilator and must have had various organ problems as I had a liver clot during this time and have had a nephrostomy and uretic stents in the period after ICU.

I'd say that it's a long recovery (I was in hospital for 4 months and then bounced in and out for a bit). The treatment I had was a pancreatic drain and various other drains during my recovery after being taken off the ICU and stabilised.

Now though, I am feeling well, my stamina isn't back to normal but I'm not in pain, the long term consequence is that I have to take digestive enzymes (Creon) with food but this becomes a habit very quickly.

I wish you and your husband all the best and hope that he is able to have a smooth recovery.

[Zhanna1963 in reply to jimsplingley]

When did you see some improvements? My son is already 16 days in critical condition!

[jimsplingley in reply to Zhanna1963]

I think I was in intensive care and then high dependency unit for about 3 weeks and then transferred to a specialist center.

[RayTay]

My dad died of acute severe necrotising pancreatitis in January. He was in ICU and on life support, and an invasive ventilator. They tried to do a trachy operation but he wasn’t well enough, and died of multiple organ failure as his organs never restarted on their own again.

The difficult thing about pancreatitis is that there is only supportive care. There is nothing you can give to stop the pancreatitis. It’s an awful ugly disease.

I hope your husbands organs restart.

[Aconcernedwife]

Hi Peach, my husband went into hospital last year for 102 days with necrotizing severe acute pancreatitis, he had 2 laperotomies and also ended up back in hospital after release with collections of puss around his body which swelled him up like a balloon, he was 48 at the time and I really thought he'd die, however he didnt! He pulled through and is now happy and healthy, he cannot ever drink alcohol again but it's a small price to pay! We are now very happy, he some times gets little dragging pains when he has something fatty to eat but otherwise is ok! It took about a further 12 weeks to get back to sort of normality after he was released from hospital, hope.your hubby pulls through I know how scary it is!❤

[Taciab2020]

Praying for your husband. He is young and will be able to breath on his own. Never lose hope or stop praying. God hear prayers. When things are uncertain that’s when we need to have faith. God can work miracles. Praying for you and him.

[VickyC1982]

Hi Peach,

I spent two weeks in intensive care last December and was take off the ventilator on Christmas Day 2019. I was in intensive care with viral pneumonia, my lungs had failed and my kidneys also failed. I am also 37 but I’ve now been home from hospital almost 3 months and my life has been getting back to normal.

The doctors didn’t expect me to survive and they expected me to be brain damaged due to lack of oxygen but I am alive and living a normal life again!!

Your husband is young and his lungs and heart will be strong and able to take a battering. Don’t give up hope, a lot of us in this group are survivors and we will all give you support.

Keep talking to him, holding his hand and telling him to fight!

Vicky xx

[Zhanna1963 in reply to VickyC1982]

When do you start see some improvements? My son is 16 days in CCU and still in critical condition/ He is just 25 yo!

[VickyC1982 in reply to Zhanna1963]

I spent two weeks on the ventilator and another week in intensive care. My body started to fight the virus I had around day 10 and then I started to improve. What I had sounds very much like COVID-19, it was a viral pneumonia. Is your son still on a ventilator? They were actually going to give me a trachy and try to wake me gradually but they didn’t need to. They told my husband at first to expect me to be on the ventilator for at least 6 weeks so the fact I recovered so quickly once I started to fight the virus was a surprise to them! X

[Zhanna1963 in reply to VickyC1982]

Yes, he is still on vent. They try to remove when he is ready. he is very agitated when he wakes up.

[VickyC1982 in reply to Zhanna1963]

Yeah it’s hard to wake someone up gently without them being agitated and frightened. Whilst patients are on the ventilator, they have vivid dreams, hallucinations and delirium caused by a mixture of all the drugs and the illness. Your son may be waking up and trying to pull at his tubes etc so it may be easier to keep him sedated for the time being so he doesn’t accidentally hurt himself. When I first woke with the tube in my trachea, I kicked the end of the bed so hard trying to get up that I broke my big toe!! I thought all sorts of strange things had happened when I was out of it! I thought I’d been to America in an iron lung, been to the burning man festival, been used for baby parts and been lecturing on obesity!!! When I woke up, I was still hallucinating and was convinced the staff were trying to kill me 😳 Everyone is different and some people start to recover quickly whilst others take a while. The doctors and his daily nurse will be the best people to talk to, but I wouldn’t worry about him still being ventilated xx

[Zhanna1963 in reply to VickyC1982]

Thank you very much for your answer! Stay healthy!

[KCartwright88]

Hey!

My husband (31) is currently on the ward after stepping down from ICU and HDU, with the hopes of discharge this week to home. He was admitted on Boxing Day with necrotising pancreatitis which lead to septic shock, and multiple organ failure. It was, and still is, very scary.

My biggest advice is to trust the ICU staff, they’re amazing experts. It’s a slow journey, and full recovery is a long time away, but I echo what others say in that you can only really support the body during pancreatitis so it’s a waiting game.

Try and join an ICU steps group on Facebook, I found this a massive support.

Wish you the best and pray for a quick recovery ❤️

[Drewlyn]

Hi, my partner had exactly the same, he was two months in intensive care and only organ actually working unaided being his heart, which remained strong! We went through lots of traumas, he was given 48 hours at one point, had pneumonia twice, along with other complications too numerous to mention, the Drs actually flipped him onto his stomach when all else had failed to allow his lungs to inflate. When coming off the ventilator we encountered numerous problems and he was never stable enough to perform a tracheotomy until his 7th week in ICU! I have to say the ICU team pulled out all the stops here in Spain where we have lived for the last 15 years. It’s a long story short but there was always a worry about the necrotic percentage of the damaged pancreas, I was worried once he came home that the percentage of necrosis would need to be removed by a further operation! I am so pleased to tell you we are now exactly three years on, the necrotic tissue has dissipated naturally and he has had no further episodes of pancreatitis, the scan has shon a regeneration of the pancreas and he is no longer needing medical appointments! I cannot pretend we live a totally different lifestyle but he is here and enjoying his two new grandchildren! Never give up hope ! Message if we can help! Andy is 54 years old now, he had his 51st birthday in ICU, none of which he remembers! Lynn & Andy

[MikeA]

Hi Hidden, I had the exact same illness in 2012...and I'm writing this now. I was in ICU for three months and in and out of hospital for thr next 18 months - it's a marathon not a sprint. I was 39 so your 25 year old will probably be way fitter. Good luck x