Post Operative treatment - lung infection due to sepsis ??

[padma1]

My father is 76 years and has had a hernia operation. He was admitted to hospital since he vomitted something black, and he had not had stools for 2 days and his stomach was bloated. The day prior to operation, he was having breathing difficulty and he was put on ventilator support. After his operation, since the saturation levels were low , they could not take him off the ventilator. Later the doctors diagnosed that he was infected with sepsis. He was consistenly having fever. They then performed tracheoctomy on him, since he was having difficulty in coughing out the phlegm. They had administered different antibiotics on him with the result he also had blood motions. Later this was controlled after eliminating the antibiotics. A CT scan was done on him which revealed lung infection for which a new drug ZOSYM was administered. He did not get fever since then, but then the urine levels dropped and the BP dropped. The doctors administered DOPAMINE and LASIX to maintain the same. He seemed to be doing better and so they put him off DOPAMINE and LASIX. But the doctors say he has multi-organ failure . He is still on ventilator support. He has been in the ICU for the last 30 days. Currently is at 50% ventilator support and his respiratory levels are at 20-30 with saturation levels of 90-98%. I am worried. Will he ever be off the ventilator. Will he survive. The other aspect is he has been suffering from mild Parkinsons since the last 5 years. He has not taken any drugs for it since he has seen side effects with the usage of the drugs.

[National Jewish]

We cannot predict your father's survival.  Even the doctors who are caring for him may have difficulty answering your question.  However these doctors are the ones who can answer your question the best.  It is a good sign that your father needs only 50% rather than 100% ventilator support.  You will probably have a better idea of his chances based on his progress over the next couple days.