Can a person be in a coma from a UTI?

UTI is urinary tract infection. An untreated infection can lead to sepsis. I used to think sepsis meant blood poisoning. It's not. Your body's own immune system tries to fight the infection. After a while, it stops fighting it. Instead your immune turns against itself. That's when sepsis begins. Without immediate medical intervention, your body will continue to attack itself - damaging the tissues, organ failure and sometimes death.

My dad had pneumonia. He refused to go to the clinic/ER. One day, I came home, he was unresponsive. He had very high fever and gasping for breath. His kidney was failing, bleeding internally somewhere, etc... He never came out of the coma.  In the end, we took him off life support.

Ignoring infections can be deadly, especially for young children, the elderly and those with weak immune systems...

I would say that maybe the septis played havoc with Moms insulin and blood sugar which will put you in a coma too.

Just an ex: daughter had an abscess. She was given Novacain to numb the tooth. When it was pulled, she screamed because she felt everything. When asked why she had pain after being given Novacain the dentist said that an infection can counteract the pain killer.

I know this isn't the same thing but just wanted you to see how one thing can counteract the other.

A person can get sepsis, which can be very serious, even life threatening. Can you tell us what is going on?

Your mother certainly could be in a coma as a result of an infection whether its source is the urinary tract or something else. The diabetes is an additional problem and I'm sure you know better than I do how difficult it can be to manage. But if your mother is already on dialysis + had a u.t.i. - I think we'd better stop guessing and you'd better ask her doctors to explain to you in plain English what they think is happening.

Well done to you for taking prompt action, and I hope your mother will make a good recovery once everything is under control.

If she had the UTI long enough to become septic. See from your other post she is in the hospital, unresponsive.

She could have had a stroke, a heart attack, almost anything. This happened to my M I L she had a massive stroke then a heart attack, lost consciousness and was found the next morning still breathing but unresponsive. Hospice was started and she passed about ten days later. Otherwise she was healthy, no dementia or anything else.

Sorry this has happened.

Sandy, how is your mom?

It happened to my mother. She became septic from a UTI. She had an underlying blood cancer that may have contributed to it in her case. One day she seemed fine, the next day her housemate/caregiver found her "lifeless" and called 911. The EMTs suspected sepsis due to her low blood pressure and high heart rate, and whisked her off to the ER.

When someone, especially elderly, with type 2 diabetes gets an infection, their BG can go very high >500 or even 1000. They become dehydrated and sleepy and can go into a coma. It is called hyperosmolar, hyperglycemic, nonketotic syndrome. In the old days before people were able to check BG, people often died of it. If she's in the hospital, they would fix this. Do you know what her BG was? It is usually treated with hydration.

Yes, a coma is a possibility. My mother previously had a UTI that was so severe it led to a minor heart attack. One evening I was speaking with her on the phone when she suddenly started speaking gibberish and couldn't answer basic questions like the day of the week or her birthday. I had her put my dad on the phone, and I told him to immediately hang up and get her to an emergency room. (They live in a rural area where waits for an ambulance are ridiculous.) The ER staff tested her for a stroke, but later detected a minor heart attack. Upon further testing, it was determined to be a UTI. Her white blood cells and bacteria growth were off the charts. She showed absolutely no symptoms. No cramping or backache, no change in urine or urination--nothing. She spent a few days in the hospital and did an antibiotics IV at home with home health care. Her doctor explained to me that in the elderly, UTIs can take on a myriad of forms, which I had no idea.

My mother is prone to UTIs but the one she got last June was the worst. The symptoms we saw were volatility, emotionality, anger, weakness and confusion which came on suddenly. She was very confrontational and I had the aide take her to the doctor. There were no obvious signs of a urinary infection like burning or itching, but she did have a lot of pain in her side. In the doctor's office, she suddenly passed out and he called and ambulance right there. The white count in the hospital was almost 70,000 and she was diagnosed with sepsis and unresponsive for hours. She had bloody diarrhea and everyone had to wear masks and gloves if going into the room. There were two days in intensive care and then 4 days in a room before 6 weeks in rehab. I urge anyone whose elderly relative gets UTIS to get a home testing kit which we did. Now we test each week and with any positive results we send a specimen to the doctor for the lab to culture. She has had 5 additional infections but we treated them early. We still do not know why she is getting so many but one doctor told u s that with incontinence, comes UTIS.