A dear, dear friend of mine..her sister, Jennifer, has been in the hospital for a week...doctors having a hard time figuring it out. The family has been told that a "bacteria" has started to take over her organs..not responding to antibiotics. She is YOUNG..and a good soul!!!! Remeber her in your prayers today/night/tomorrow...etc...and consider her healed!!! PEACE-C

I will remember Jennifer in prayers, and all of you that love her. Keep us posted.

It sounds like sepsis and there is a new experimental drug that works on it but most docs don't know about it...I hope this friend has a family member who will intercede and insist that they use it to save this woman's life. I don't recall the details but if you go on the net and type in "new drug for sepsis" you will probably find someone thing on it, also try medline.
I know you asked for prayer not medical advice but I am not so good on the prayer thing but would like to help....doctors often don't know the latest and greatest on research and need the advocate for the patient to step in and guide them in the right direction. I have personally experienced this and it can save lives.

Thanks Susanng....first, a family practioner told her she had bronchitis...antibiotics did not work. Ended up at emergency room, pased out there. Been in hospital for a week now. Fever, weak etc...loading her down with them now. Saying it is bacterial, not virul, but do not know it's source. Did heart sonogram last night, and infectious disease doctor. Did Bloodwork. One doc told her she needed a new liver. Then another said no. Ahh...medical care!!! C

For what it's worth and making it short to the point. saw a story on tv some years ago about a young boy who got so sick..sounds like your friend...no doctor could find what it was...til the dying boy recalled eating some raw meat when he was on a camping trip with scouts. as it turned out the meat had gone bad..he had bacteria...I seem to remember they managed to save him. will pray for your friend.

I remembered the bacteria....Ecoli...it could have come from eating at a restuarant and doesn't neccessarily have to be meat..it could have been a cross contamination.

MR

[This message has been edited by Mosquitorose (edited 06-23-2002).]

[This message has been edited by Mosquitorose (edited 06-23-2002).]

Sepsis is when a bacterial infection gets into the blood and starts attacking organs unrelated to the initial infection. It can kill infants in hours, elderly people in a day and previously healthy adults in a few days. There is a new drug that has been proven effected in sepsis, which is a major cause of death of elderly people in nursing homes, but can affect anyone who develops a bacterial infection such as e coli or antibiotic resistant staph, etc.

There is some wierd S**t out there. Spouse experienced near death from unidentifiable antibiotic-resistant infection. Intensive care for 5 weeks, 2 weeks on respirator. No known infection was EVER detected. Even from tissue samples sent to Armed Forces Institite of Pathology in DC. What worked? A good friend contacted a Faith Healer. Current drugs no longer effective. Keep praying.

The name of the new drug is "XIGRIS" -- your friend's family/advocate/designated bitch needs to force the docs to use this if they balk. It may be your friend's last chance. See story below:


New drug a potent weapon against severe blood infections Bill Bascom had some flu symptoms in March that kept getting worse -- so bad, in fact, that the San Jose resident went to the emergency department at Good Samaritan Hospital. He was quickly diagnosed with sepsis, a severe bacterial infection of the bloodstream.
Until recently that would have been a major problem because there wasn't any direct treatment available for the syndrome. But thanks to a new drug called Xigris that hit the market this past November, Mr. Bascom was quickly treated in the intensive care unit and started to feel better the next day.
"I'm in good shape, I take care of myself, exercise, eat right and I don't smoke. I think that helped too," says the 40-year-old San Jose resident.
"The bug he got was strong, and his system just couldn't keep up," says Dr. Msalam Sara, a pulmonologist at Good Samaritan Hospital who treated Mr. Bascom. "This drug helped break the cascade of the toxins."
Sepsis is widespread but remains unknown to most people. Sepsis is the 11th leading cause of death in the country. It kills about 225,000 Americans a year, more than stroke, breast cancer and lung cancer combined. Every year, the syndrome affects about 750,000 Americans at an estimated cost of $17 billion.
Dr. Sara says Xigris is one tool among many to help physicians fight this illness, but quick diagnosis is necessary to get the drug to the patient soon as possible.
Sepsis can begin with an infection from something as simple as a cut or something as severe as meningitis. That triggers the release of substances called immune modulators, which affect the lining of the blood vessels. That causes blood vessels to become inflamed and activate the body's blood clotting system.
Blood clots can then sometimes form within vital organs, causing them to shut down from blocked blood flow and lack of oxygen. As the damage spreads, more organs fail, which could result in death.
An estimated 30 percent of people with sepsis die, despite treatment with intravenous antibiotics and supportive care like oxygen and kidney dialysis.
In clinical trails, Xigris reduced mortality rates by 50 percent. People who have received the drug also needed less alternative treatments such as dialysis and oxygen, says Dr. Alan Chausow, pulmonary physician at El Camino Hospital in Mountain View.
Xigris isn't a cure-all for every bad blood infection. It was approved by the federal Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of adult patients with severe sepsis who have an especially high risk of death, as measured by a scoring system based on their general health and the severity of their illness.
Dr. Chausow started using Xigris soon after it was approved.
"It's an exciting drug," Dr. Chausow says. "The data supporting this drug is excellent."
Several other drugs have been used in clinical trails over the years, but none have worked, Dr. Chausow says. Sixteen companies tried to find a treatment for sepsis over the years and failed. It took Indianapolis-based Eli Lilly and Co. 20 years to develop Xigris, says Dan Collins, a spokesman for the company.
After the first 10 failures, researchers began to doubt they might ever find a effective treatment. Most of the companies focused on treating the inflammation or coagulation that results from sepsis. Xigris goes a step further and treats both inflammation and coagulation to bring them in balance and interrupt the cascade effect in the blood, says Mr. Collins.
The new treatment is a genetically engineered version of a human protein, Activated Protein C, which interferes with some of the body's harmful responses to severe infection, including the formation of blood clots, according to the FDA.
Because Activated Protein C interferes with blood clotting, the most serious side effect in the patient is excess bleeding, which occurred in 2.4 percent of the patients in clinical trials.
As a result, the drug should not be used on patients who have active internal bleeding, or who are more likely to bleed because of certain medical conditions including recent strokes, recent head or spinal surgery or severe head trauma, according to the FDA.
Dr. Chausow says physicians at El Camino Hospital have established a protocol for patients who receive the drug because of such side effects.
"People think this is a miracle drug, but it's not. But it does give us extra mileage with treating this disease," says Dr. Sara.
By Troy May

Great article Susanne! About the designated bitch..lol..I totally agree! If you want to help your friend or family member...one of you must be the bitch. We can't expect one doctor to know everything...they don't! I belong to a group of friends who confer on everything health wise and we do research...one of us owns an herb shop. The only time a doctor sees us.. is if we can't fix it...it hasn't happned yet... and we rarely need fixing lol. But to be healthy one must participate in ones own health. All the money property and goods in the world are worth nothing ...if u don't have health to enjoy what u worked for.

MR

A note on the "designated bitch" person... The mother of a friend of mine once told a neurosurgeon who truly thought he was God...
"Well sis on you pister. You ain't so muckin fuch."

Love that line. Comes in handy occasionally.

Kathy