Whether you suffered from a serious illness, underwent a surgical procedure or suffered severe injuries, your time in the hospital compromised your immune system. This led to you contracting an infection of some sort that turned into sepsis.
After undergoing aggressive treatment for sepsis and receiving a (relatively) clean bill of health by your doctors, you went home. You probably hoped to put the whole ordeal behind you and get on with your life. Unfortunately, your body doesn’t seem to want to cooperate.
Could you have post-sepsis syndrome?
Sepsis can do a great deal of damage to your body. In some cases, patients need limbs amputated or suffer serious cognitive disabilities. In other cases, the results are less dramatic but no less debilitating. The symptoms of post-sepsis syndrome include the following:
- Nightmares
- Vivid hallucinations
- Insomnia
- Difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep
- Panic attacks
- Extreme fatigue
- Disabling joint and muscle pain
- Decreased mental function
- Loss of self-belief and self-esteem
- Poor concentration
- Post-traumatic stress disorder
- Difficulty or inability to walk
- Inability to perform everyday actions such as bathing, cooking, etcetera
You may find yourself contracting more viral respiratory infections after sepsis as well, and you may suffer damage to your kidneys or liver. Your risk of suffering from PSS increases if you spent a significant amount of time in the hospital or spent time in the intensive care unit. If you were in relatively good health prior to the incident that put you in the hospital and your bout with sepsis, then your risk increases as well.
What this means for your life
Even with physical and cognitive therapies, you may have lifelong issues due to PSS. You may no longer be able to work. In that case, you may want to apply for Social Security disability insurance benefits. Like any other autoimmune disorder, you will need to provide the appropriate evidence from your doctors and any other medical or medical-related staff members whose care you were and are under.
Providing evidence of your bout with sepsis and the damage you now live with because of it could help illustrate your need for benefits. In addition, you will need to make sure that you properly fill out the application. If you fail to provide the correct or appropriate evidence, the Social Security Administration could deny your claim. In fact, it denies many initial claims, but that does not mean that you should give up.
