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Dr. Andrew Rynne
MD
Dr. Andrew Rynne

Family Physician

Exp 50 years

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Is Fungal Pneumonia A Cause Of Death In Patients?

My dad has been killed recently by a pulmonologist named Dr Vamsi Krishna from Siddhartha Hospital (kakinada) treating him in icu for bacterial and fungal pneumonia. I wanted to know is pneumonia that serious killer? First my dad was admitted into ICU on May 30, 2014 after seeing his lungs xray and he was put in ICU for 5 days then shifted to room then in 10 days he was discharged. After coming home we thought he was recovering well but on July 2 again he felt severe shortness in breath so when took to Siddhartha Hispital, Kakinad, Dr. Vamsi Krishna said that the lung infection came again and this time its fungal (previously he was treated for bacterial pneumonia) and so my dad was directly admitted into ICU with ventilators support. The ICU patient dies on july 12 and the reason Dr.Vamsi Krishna said is Sudden Cardiac Arrest and it can happen anytime. Other health complications of my dad are diabetes and stints in chest. My question is if there is fungal infection that serious as to be admitted into ICU on July 2 why did the Dr fail to diagonise it when visited him on June 30 apart of weekly checkup? I felt the culture test for presense of fungal infection was done late and reports came very late on July 9.
Mon, 3 Nov 2014
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Pulmonologist 's  Response
Thanks for your question on HCM.
In my opinion cardiac arrest can happen anytime on ventilated patient with diabetes and cardiac stents.
So your father was a high risk patient and pneumonia made him more worse.
Fungal pneumonia is not commonly seen. It is suspected only if typical x ray findings are there, not responding with antibiotics.
So I think doctor first gave him antibiotics and he poorly responded to those antibiotics , so thought of fungal pneumonia.
And all fungus are slow growing so culture report comes very late.
So fungal pneumonia can be the cause of death.
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Is Fungal Pneumonia A Cause Of Death In Patients?

Thanks for your question on HCM. In my opinion cardiac arrest can happen anytime on ventilated patient with diabetes and cardiac stents. So your father was a high risk patient and pneumonia made him more worse. Fungal pneumonia is not commonly seen. It is suspected only if typical x ray findings are there, not responding with antibiotics. So I think doctor first gave him antibiotics and he poorly responded to those antibiotics , so thought of fungal pneumonia. And all fungus are slow growing so culture report comes very late. So fungal pneumonia can be the cause of death.