They don't always have happy endings
21 year old kid, Drexel student, majoring in Music. Starts using IV drugs in November with his girlfriend on a trip to New York. Either he got a dirty needle, or he used the same needle twice, or something else, but he ends up giving himself an infection. The bacteria travel through his body and set up shop in his heart. They hang out for a couple months and eventually take over.
By the time he comes to the hospital, he's got bacterial vegetations on the right side of his heart, and an abscess on the left. His mitral and tricuspid valves are destroyed. He's shooting off bacterial emboli to his lungs, he's got them in at least 10 different places. He also has an infection in his hip that requires surgery to clean out. Last week an MRI of his brian shows his heart has been sending off bacteria that have ended up in his brain.
The attending doctor says it's one of the worst cases of bacterial endocarditis he's seen in his career. If the kid is going to live, he's going to require surgery to open his chest, then open his heart to go in and clean it out. Even is he survives that, a procedure to open his heart, he's still got infection all over the rest of his body that could come back and reinfect his heart. It is not good.
Hey mom, you know that son you have in college? The one who's going to graduate and get his degree and make the whole family proud? Yeah, there's been a change in plans. We're going to have to put that college thing on hold because he's dying. He's in the hospital and he might not get out alive. Not exactly the kind of thing you were expecting him to accomplish when you sent him off on his own now is it?
Everyone makes mistakes. Not everyone gets a second chance like on TV or in the movies. There isn't always a happily ever after. This kid did what everyone does, goes to college and has a good time for 4 years before having to go to the real world. That's what's so great about college right? It's a shame because now this kid learned his lesson. Anyone who walks into his hospital room and takes one look at him learns their lesson too. If everyone could spend a day in the hospital and see the end result of the decisions you're making now, we would be living in a different world.
By the time he comes to the hospital, he's got bacterial vegetations on the right side of his heart, and an abscess on the left. His mitral and tricuspid valves are destroyed. He's shooting off bacterial emboli to his lungs, he's got them in at least 10 different places. He also has an infection in his hip that requires surgery to clean out. Last week an MRI of his brian shows his heart has been sending off bacteria that have ended up in his brain.
The attending doctor says it's one of the worst cases of bacterial endocarditis he's seen in his career. If the kid is going to live, he's going to require surgery to open his chest, then open his heart to go in and clean it out. Even is he survives that, a procedure to open his heart, he's still got infection all over the rest of his body that could come back and reinfect his heart. It is not good.
Hey mom, you know that son you have in college? The one who's going to graduate and get his degree and make the whole family proud? Yeah, there's been a change in plans. We're going to have to put that college thing on hold because he's dying. He's in the hospital and he might not get out alive. Not exactly the kind of thing you were expecting him to accomplish when you sent him off on his own now is it?
Everyone makes mistakes. Not everyone gets a second chance like on TV or in the movies. There isn't always a happily ever after. This kid did what everyone does, goes to college and has a good time for 4 years before having to go to the real world. That's what's so great about college right? It's a shame because now this kid learned his lesson. Anyone who walks into his hospital room and takes one look at him learns their lesson too. If everyone could spend a day in the hospital and see the end result of the decisions you're making now, we would be living in a different world.
posted by Chris at 8:42 PM
2 Comments:
That must had been some dirty needle. That raises a ton of questions, mainly if this person felt shitty before why didn't he get it checked out then? Do you know the answer to that? I don't care for your holier-than-thou tone by the way.
I think if you had to see this kid deteriorate from day to day, or explain to his parents how bad his prognosis was and see his mother collapse in tears, you might think different. He is the sickest looking person I've ever seen, sunken eyes, losing weight, in pain, can't get out of bed.
He probably didn't get it the first time he used. When he did get sick, it felt like the flu - cough, headache, feeling crappy - so he didn't think he had to come to the hospital. It had more to do with how long it was growing inside of him than how dirty the needle was. The bacteria he has is very treatable, it's just so widespread that it's impossible to get to all of it.
I wrote about him and not all the other sick people I've seen because it's a shame. It struck a chord because he went to Drexel, he could have sat next to me in class, he could have been my roomate. This happens to other people, no one thinks it will happen to them, myself included. It's not just drugs either, its drinking, smoking, HIV, all the things people do and never think about the consequences. Well, now I've seen it happen and it's a terrible think for him and his parents to go through, and I wanted to write about it.
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