klebsiella, ecoli and Cryptococcus infection

[beehwalow]

what started out as an heart surgery turns out to be a waking nightmare for my father. I didnt know what else to do but wait and see..see him dying day by day. He underwent an aorta surgery in July. Now to date he is still in ICU. After the surgery, he lost too much blood. So blood transfusion was given. Heart beating initially was aided but now the heart is beating on its own. He couldn't get discharged out of the ICU because a few weeks back the lungs were not working. I remember there was a period where there was blood inside his lungs. His lungs collapsed. throughout he was on ventilator. I also remember a few weeks back his intestines were not absorbing nutrients at all. They had to wheel him in to remove the clogged liquids.

As of today, he has klebsielle, ecoli and cryptococcus. Is this hospital acquired or what?? I ask the dr he said klesiella and e-coli was from the community and though he was caught surprised by cryptococcus it was normal for a weakened immunity patient to contract! Even if i change the ventilator pipe everyday it wont make a difference. Even if i ask the clinical team to perform contact precautions, also no difference.

He is on permanent dialysis (kidney permanently damaged) and still on ventilator. BP fluctuates badly. On medication to stabilise. He is also on medication to try to kill the infection for many weeks. Now he is in a daze, some days are good, others bad. The clinical team said it was because of the medication. This new antifungal medication has been administered for a week. I dont see any improvement.

I am at a loss. I feel that i am trapped in a box with the drs performing trial and errors on what is "known" to try to fix him, when clearly, the drugs are not helping at all. He is a multi-organ dysfunctional patient. He has been in ICU for two months! He has weakened immunity and his kidneys have failed completely. He had a minor heart attack last week. he went in for a heart op (he had stenting done in all three major vessels 1.5years ago and now blocked again).

Can i ask the clinical team to stop the anti-fungal and antibiotic treatments so as to allow his immune system to fight the infection naturally? Or just continue to see his organs shutting down? Is the ID medication too toxic for him?

[mkh9]

Hi, I am so sorry all this has happened to you and your father.  It sounds like because his heart failed and his immunity was low the bacteria and fungus that you normally don't get sick from have taken over. The Cryptococcus can comes from bird droppings and also is in the environment. So you can carry this around without being sick for years and when you get lowered immunity it will come out in a pneumonia like illness. Same with the E. Coli and Klepsiella pneumoniae. These are normally in your intestines and can be in other parts of your body but can back up into your lungs when things are not working right and cause infection.  So, it is not really the antibiotics that are causing the problem. Sometimes the E.coli and Klebsiella can become resistant and that makes it harder to treat though. I don't know if these are. I think they would have told you. Rarely, there have been incidents when the person got these bacteria, but not Cryptococcus, from someone either not washing the equipment or their hands and gave them to a patient. But from what you described I don't think that is the case here. Also taking him off the antibiotics wouldn't help either way. If he had a resistant strain too he would be in room by himself. I'm pretty sure the blood backing up in the lungs and his lowered immunity caused the problems that can't be helped in this case. I know you want to help and it is so sad. But, I think he is just very ill.  Sometimes we think the medical profession can fix everything since we are pretty advanced but it really isn't that advanced in many areas. I hope he can over come all these obstacles.
Take care and try to rest yourself too.
mkh9

[beehwalow]

U are right. I am angry. Really thought that there is something I can do. Your comments talk sense into me. I thank you for it.

[mkh9]

Glad to be able to help somehow.
mkh9