10 September 2007

Mom spoke to the specialist this afternoon. He says that the cultures have come back clear but that they have taken more specimens for culturing. He says Colin has not contracted Pneumonia but has "lung shock". He was quite blunt and unsympathetic, from what I can gather and just repeated himself when mom asked him what "lung shock" is - you can find out more on
http://www.medterms.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=7817
The mortality rate for lung shock seems to be better than for pneumonia whilst on a ventilator 30% as opposed to 40%, but can be causd by pneumonia.
The specialist says that it was probably caused by bone marrow and that it could also have got into his brain and caused some damage there. Only time will tell.
I think the biggest danger is the temperature. How this specialst can say there is no pneumonia and almost imply that there is no infection because the cultures are negative seems to me to be an attempt to mislead us intentionally. There is clearly a serious infection as he has a serious temperature and they haven't been able to identify the specific bacteria yet. Why not just say it?
Well keep up the good wishes and thanks to all the Old Selbornians who are phoning in - I dont think Colin is going to be running around too much at the reunion but Deus Dixit, he will be back in East London.