In 1996 I was in the hospital with septicemia due to an infected Tessio Catheter.I was gravely ill but I pulled thru.My graft clotted due to the fact that the nurses in ER used my dialysis arm to do lab work in all the confusion when I arrived in a coma plus the fact that I barely had a BP!aNYWAY BEFORE i WAS SENT HOME i WENT INTO SURGERY THINKING THAT THE GRAFT WOULD BE DECLOTTED AND THEN i WOULD BE SENT HOME.wELL APPARENTLY THE DOCTOR ASSUMED THAT THE GRAFT WAS ALSO INFECTED AND HE WENT AHEAD AND REMOVED MY GRAFT!aFTER THEY DID A CULTURE ON THE GRAFT IT CAME OUT NEGATIVE !I was devastated because I always thought that you can save a graft with antibiotics.Is that right?Could my graft been saved with antibiotics given as a prophylactic measure?

Jerica,
It might have been saved- see the DOQI Guidelines under the post 2 below this one called "removing synthetic graft due to infection"
A graft is difficult to remove when it is not infected. Your Dr. could tell you more about how the graft looked and why it was removed. Sounds like you were very ill and they wanted to save you over the graft. Might be worth talking to the Dr. about.