7 Eyewitness News shared an article about sepsis on our Facebook page on Monday and a Niagara Falls native, who now lives in Alabama, reached out to us sharing her excruciating battle with sepsis.
The CDC says sepsis is the body's extreme response to an infection and it's life-threatening.
Kristy Carr was getting into her truck with her stepson on July 19th when she says a drunk driver plowed into their vehicle.
"They were going to amputate my right arm because my arm had hit the tree when I got thrown 30 feet from the truck," Carr said.
Carr went to the hospital and was sent home, but the next day she says she was very confused, had a fever and was throwing up.
She returned to the hospital and doctors placed her in a drug-induced coma for four weeks. They told her family to say their final goodbyes.
"They didn't give me any hope, the doctors said I wasn't going to make it," Carr said.
Her vital organs began shutting down one-by-one.
"I was dying," she said.
Five months have past and as Carr continues her recovery, she's using her story to spread awareness about sepsis.
According to the CDC, more than 1.5 million people nationwide get sepsis each year and about one in three patients who die in a hospital, have sepsis.
"It could be a matter of hours between life and death, so this is an emergency," Dr. Gale Burstein, Erie County Commissioner of Health, said.
The CDC says anyone can get an infection and almost any infection can lead to sepsis.
But you can:
- Prevent infections
- Practice good hygiene -- by keeping cuts clean until they're healed
- Know the symptoms -- confusion, fever, discomfort and
- Act fast if you suspect sepsis.
Severe sepsis strikes more than one-million Americans each year.
"Sepsis is very serious if they can catch it in time they can save more lives," Carr said.
