80 Year Old Hospitalised With UTI - Now Dialysis

[KTMsm]

In brief my 80yr old Dad - who has many other health issues - was hospitalised 9 days ago ago with a UTI which has led to sepsis and has just been put on dialysis

This sounds pretty dire to me and google seems to suggest the same however the Nurse laughed it off and suggested that after dialysis his kidneys will start working again and he'll be ok

My sister is in Oz and wants to book a flight if this is likely to be terminal - bearing in mind the pandemic there is limited opportunity to do so

Can anyone with medical knowledge comment please

[ucb]

An 80yr old with 'many health problems', acute sepsis and renal failure = not a good outcome often
Sorry, no absolutes in medicine but there are a lot of factors against a good outcome here. Even if your Dad survives the acute sepsis, theres a very long road to some sort of full recovery, and most survivors of critical care illnesses do not return to thei pre-illness condition

[KTMsm]

Thanks - unfortunately that confirms what I was reading on the internet

[K77 CTR]

I think there's too many variables to give an answer one way or the other. Urosepsis is often treated with drugs that the kidneys really do not like and coupled with sepsis will probably have him having a significant acute kidney injury. I presume he is being filtered rather than true dialysis and will probably do that for a short period of time to see if they can recover his kidney function enough to be managed conservatively. You really need to speak to the medical team looking after him to get a true indication. Is he still for resus? Hopefully he turns the corner quickly although his recovery will take time and have a prolonged stay.

[KTMsm]

It's very hard to get through to anyone - not unusual to take an hour to speak to a nurse and he's been moved 3 times

He's been conscious throughout although he is regularly confused which I understand is usual with UTI

He's currently on the renal ward awaiting dialysis today. I've asked 3 nurses now whether this is likely to be fatal and they all say no yet he's been in 9 days and is now on dialysis, it doesn't seem very positive to me

[johnpsanderson]

As an alternative viewpoint, my mother had chronic kidney disease, leading her to needing dialysis as her kidney function failed. After several months of regular dialysis she did eventually stop having dialysis, despite the longer term prognosis being she would need to have it again in the future (which she did after many months without). So people who’ve started dialysis can stop having it...

Wishing your dad all the best.