Hearing Loss From Sepsis

My wife came down with septic shock in December 2011. She was in ICU for 1 month. During the month, she received a multitude of antibiotics  to kill the infection. In addition she had dialysis, plasma ferisus,, was on a feeding tube, and  a ventilater. She then went through 3 weeks of Rehabilitation. She is gaining strength, but one of the more damaging effects was a substantial loss of hearing.
Is there any victims of Sepsis that experienced hearing loss resulting from the infection or the heavy medication that they received? If so, has it come back, and how long did it take?

Any information regarding this would be greatly appreciated.

Len B. . ,

[Rachele M Orsini, Au.D.]

Hello, I have sent a message to the administrators at the medhelp website to move your question to the otology side of the forum to discuss the sepsis side effects.

In terms of hearing loss from antibiotics-yes this is very common in life saving IV antibiotics and most of the time the loss is permanent.  Has your wife had an audiological exam?  If she is diagnosed with sensorineural hearing loss, her options will be to consider the use of hearing aids.  If her loss is diagnosed as mixed or conductive then she may benefit from other treatments which can be discussed with an otologist.

Thank you,

Rachele M. Orsini, Au.D.