Young woman finds herself fighting for her life after a UTI goes untreated, family says

PITTSBURGH (WPXI) - A Pennsylvania family says their daughter was fighting for her life after she became seriously ill and wound up in a medically induced coma due to a urinary tract infection that went untreated.

“She was a perfectly healthy 18-year-old who was suddenly fighting for her life on Sunday,” Katie Sullivan’s mother, Shannon Sullivan, said.

Katie Sullivan is a Central Valley High School graduate, a gymnast and a freshman softball player at Waynesburg University.

“This has been incredibly scary. Katie is not one to complain about much because she’s very athletic in two sports,” her father, Tim Sullivan, said.

For the last month, the Sullivan family said she had lower back pain that she thought was from her rigorous training schedule.

However, just days after Christmas, Katie Sullivan was taken to a hospital in critical condition with extremely low blood pressure and a high heart rate.

Doctors discovered she had a urinary tract infection.

“When they did the testing, they found she had a urinary tract infection for about a month that actually caused a hole in her kidney, which caused an abscess in her liver into her back muscle and behind her kidney. She was in septic shock,” Shannon Sullivan said.

For the last week and a half, Katie Sullivan has been in surgery, in a medically induced coma, on a ventilator and had brain swelling.

“We weren’t given much hope. So, we brought all our family in. And hour to hour, we went out and celebrated that she didn’t deteriorate,” Shannon Sullivan said.

On Wednesday, the family said they finally got word of her improvement.

“For the first time today, I asked her if she wanted to go home, and she shook her head yes. And they asked her if she was in pain, and she shook her head no,” Shannon Sullivan said. “From not moving on Sunday to today ... is miraculous.”

Doctors believe Katie Sullivan has a long road ahead, but her parents are hoping to eventually see her back in her softball uniform.

Their one warning to everyone is not to ignore back pain.

“Even if you think it’s nothing, please get it checked. Because never in a million years, and I’m a nurse practitioner, did I think I’d be watching my daughter being intubated, being given a dire diagnosis at 18.”

According to the Mayo Clinic, most urinary tract infections can be treated with oral antibiotics.