What, Why, When, Where and How

This blog is going to be used for updates on my father, Ron Stout, who is at St. Vincent’s medical center in Toledo, OH with severe pneumonia and a blood borne bacterial infection.

 

The story so far...

 

Ron was admitted to the Wood County Hospital ER on Tuesday, Feb. 17th at 7:00am after being sick for about 3 weeks with various symptoms.  

 

His first symptoms were flu-like, and he was given a weak antibiotic by his family doctor.  After 10 days of the antibiotic, he wasn’t much better.  He was coughing a lot and getting tired often.  He scheduled another appointment with his family doctor and they did a blood test and gave him prednisone (a steroid) because of congestion in his right lung.  The blood test showed that he was anemic (red blood cell/hemoglobin was low) and his family doctor suggested that he be checked for internal bleeding.  They planned to test him for signs of bleeding and sent him home for the weekend.  

 

He went to work that Sunday and Monday but was getting worse.  He went into his doctor on Monday Feb. 16th to tell them that he was getting worse and was worried, and they told him that they might not be able to squeeze him in.  They told him that they would call if they could get him worked in.  They never called him.  

 

Monday night my mother urged him to go to the ER because he was pale and he had a lot of pain in the right side of his chest.  He refused to go in that night, but promised to go in the morning.  That morning, Tuesday Feb. 17th, he was admitted to the Wood County ER at 7:00 am.  

 

They immediately identified the pneumonia and gave him oxygen.  They did a CT scan and saw that his entire right lung was white with either fluid or mucous.  That right lung was not working at all and his left lung was already slightly infected as well.  He was admitted and put in a room at around 9:30am and put on oxygen while they checked his blood and tried to get his oxygen levels up.  The combination of his right lung not working and his low hemoglobin had lowered his oxygen levels to about 80% (very low).  

 

Wood County Hospital moved him to their ICU at around 11:00 am because they were struggling to keep his oxygen level up.  They put him on a CPAP-type machine with a mask to help him breathe.  He was awake and "being Ron" for most of the day on Tuesday with the breathing machine and mask helping to keep his oxygen level up around 92%.  Late Tuesday night, however, he was having to work too hard to breathe with his severe pneumonia so they decided to put him on a breathing tube.  This meant that they had to sedate him and they told us that he would probably remain sedated and on the breathing tube for several days.  

 

Wednesday morning brought us bad news.  The lab at WCH found that his blood had tested positive for the streptococcus pneumonia bacteria.  They had also found this same bacteria in the material in his lungs and this meant that he now had a very serious blood infection that could easily spread to other organs.  They were keeping a close eye on his kidneys because they appeared to be dehydrated but they were concerned that they may be infected as well.  

 

At this point we decided that he needed to be moved to a different hospital.  We consulted with his ICU doctor and decided to have him moved to St. Vincent’s Medical Center in Toledo.  Wood County decided to give him a unit of blood transfusion before having him sent via ambulance to St V's in an attempt to get his red blood cell count up.  They moved him at around 1:00pm on Wednesday and his vitals were dropping when they arrived at St V's.  They admitted him to the St V's ER to get his vitals up and then moved him to their ICU.  

 

He was received by the top doctor in the St V's ICU (he actually oversees their ICU) and they put him on their breathing machine and 2 antibiotics right away.  He has a nurse stationed literally next to his door keeping an eye on him 24/7.  Since Wednesday his heart rate, blood pressure, breathing rate, etc have been stable, but his red blood cell count has still been low (7.4 on Thursday) and his white blood cell count has not been elevated as it should be (it's been 10-11 which is what it should be when we aren't sick).  

 

We will use this blog to post updates.  You can subscribe to the blog to receive updates via email and you can leave comments here as well.  Keep in mind that as he recovers he will be able to read this blog and your comments.