Septic Shock and Awe

Septic shock is when the body’s overwhelming response to a life-threatening infection causes organ failure and sometimes death. Shock and awe, also known as rapid dominance, is a modern military concept based on the use of devastating power and dazzling displays of might to cripple the enemy's awareness and extinguish its will to fight. Septic shock and awe is when, due to a life-threatening infection, super inflammation from sepsis, and multiple organ failure, you are put into a drug-induced coma to save your life. Massive amounts of antibiotics are administered along with the paralytic sedatives that take your mind to another world while your body is on the brink of death. The hyper-realistic, long-lasting nightmares while on a ventilator are so convincingly real that they leave you in the grip of PTSD when you go home. If a sepsis survivor is lucky enough to go home with all his limbs, or even go home at all, severe physical weakness makes everything difficult for a long time. Depression is a given for many reasons, and if you have never been the depressive type, it can be difficult to accept the diagnosis and easy to resist the necessary treatment. Septic shock and awe is getting your ass handed to you, on fire, and being told, “This is now your life. Good luck.”