"My son being diagnosed with Lemierre's syndrome,"

My son in his early 20ies was admitted to hospital at the end of March this year with what the hospital thought was tonsillitis. He had been ill for a couple days with a sore throat and a high temperature. I took him to see our GP, the DR told him she thought he had viral flu and prescribed Calpol and throat spray, as he was not able to swallow. 

My son became more unwell that night but seemed to pick up the next day. On returning home from work the next day, I noticed that he had become extremely unwell, vomiting blood and coffee like fluid, so I called for an ambulance, after a lot of messing about from the ambulance staff from the Fife area, he was taken to Forth Valley Royal Hospital in Larbert.

He was seen quite quickly in A&E, and was given IV fluids and they took his bloods, he was then told that they needed to keep in for observation, he was then transferred to Clinical assessment, Trish and Tracey were amazing, nothing was to much trouble for them, he was catheterised and was given more IV fluids and antibiotics, we were then seen by Dr Farmer from Infectious diseases, who told me that my son had Sepsis, I was extremely upset as I am aware that Sepsis can be very life threatening.

After Dr Farmer had spoken to my son and I, I asked him if I could have a word in private, Dr Farmer told me that my son was extremely sick and that Sepsis was a very serious infection, he then told me that this could take his life, I was distraught, Dr Farmer was extremely tactful in explaining that they would do everything possible to save my son. I asked Dr Farmer how my son has got this infection as he was a very fit boy within the Army, but he wasn't able to tell me.

My son was on Clinical assessment for two nights being cared for, with regular bloods being taken and on IV antibiotics, IV fluids and IV  morphine for the pain's he had now developed in his lungs. The staff were amazing and let me stay with him for the time he was there. He was then transferred to A31, again the staff were amazing and our every need was attended to, and the staff let me stay with him for the whole time he was there. He was on two different antibiotics as well as copious amounts of IV fluids and IV Morphine, he was having regular CT scans and x-rays done on his chest, we were then seen by Dr Farmer again to say that my son had got a serious infection called Lemeirre's Syndrome. My son was being given the highest amount of oxygen possible on A31, so a decision was made to transfer him to Intensive Care.

Once on Intensive Care, J was settled into a bay and was monitored, that night I decided to come home as I had only had a couple of hours sleep since this all began and it had been a week. I knew my son was in safe hands and would have 1 to 1 care.

At 5am the next morning, I received a phone call from the hospital telling me that my son was in a critical condition and that they need to put a tube in him, I was very upset and asked an anaesthetist if this was life threatening and they said, (oh yes, your son is going to die) I couldn't believe how they told me that over the phone,

I arrived at the hospital very distraught, to be told that they needed to put my son on life support, my whole world fell apart. Whilst my son was being attended to the Dr took me to a relatives room and explained the severity of the infection and that it was a fatal and very rare condition and that my son could possibly pass away from the infection. I again was devastated. 

My son was connected to four different machines and all sorts of tubes connected to his veins, he was being given copious amounts IV fluids, antibiotics, and other medicines, he was still having x-rays done and receiving chest physio. All the staff were incredibly compassionate and attended to my son like their own son, it was very touching to see them explaining to my son and myself everything they were doing at his bedside.

He was on life support for a few days and was brought round extremely slowly over the next four days. He was still having a lot of pain from his lungs and was still having regular CT and x-rays done, a decision was made to put a chest drain in to help remove fluid and blood clots. At this point my son was still attached to the ventilator as he was still not able to breathe enough for himself, he was also still connected to all the other tubes.

Once my son was able to stand, the physio's gave him a zimmer frame  to help him mobilise, He slowly started to become strong enough to breath on his own and to feed himself, so the Dr decided to remove his ventilator and feeding tube. Over then next few weeks my son was making slow but amazing recovery and was eventually discharged near the end of April, he is continuing to make great progress at home and has just finished a further six weeks of antibiotics and painkillers.

He is still having ongoing care within the outpatient department with Dr Farmer. Throughout all this terrible ordeal, I can't thank Forth Valley enough for saving my son as on five occasion's, Dr's told me that my son may lose his life, but I am the happiest mother alive as my son is still here.