What causes up to 48,000 deaths a year in the UK, a 20% mortality rate, and affects 25,000 children each year?
Answer: sepsis.
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Former delivery driver Dave Crum, 41, is well aware of the damage it can cause.
He developed the disease following straining his groin while playing football in January 2020 and ended up in misery at A&E.
Dave, from Blackpool, said: “An emergency doctor saw me coming out of my cubicle, rushed me to bed, told my wife I was dying, and put me into an induced coma for the operation. I didn’t know I was Battling necrotizing fasciitis.”
Dave was rescued seven times – on his 40th birthday, his family “had to make the painful decision to amputate my entire left leg from the hip.”
Sepsis affects 245,000 people in the UK every year, 80,000 of whom suffer life-changing effects like Dave.
Dr Ron Daniels, Founder and CEO of Sepsis Trust (sepsistrust.org), Consultant Intensive Care at University Hospitals Birmingham, said: “Research shows that the number of people being diagnosed is increasing, but in reality we are only getting better at finding it.
‘Pain is 10 out of 50’
“That said, as we become a longer-lived population, older generations undergo more invasive treatments, and antibiotic resistance increases, we may see more people diagnosed.”
Dave woke up in pain and first went to his local walk-in center, where he took the pain medication codamol, and was sent home. But that night, he mightn’t sleep.
“From one to ten, ten being the most painful, it feels like I’m 50,” he said.
signs to check at home
In medicine, we use various clinical scales to assess someone’s sepsis.
We focus on six metrics: respiratory rate, heart rate, blood pressure, oxygen levels, consciousness, and body temperature. At home, however, you won’t have the kit. Instead, check for these signs:
breathe: How many breaths do you take in a minute? If there are more than 20 or less than 9, this is not normal.
Heart rate: How many jumps per minute? If it is more than 100 or less than 40, this is not normal.
consciousness: Are they alert or become lethargic or confused? Lethargy is a cause for concern.
temperature: This is worrying if their temperature is below 35 degrees Celsius or above 38.5 degrees Celsius.
Cool/Wet Surroundings: Cold hands and feet. This is an extra worrying sign because it means the body is starting to shut down and divert blood to the internal organs. This, in combination with any of the other signs above, requires immediate medical attention.
After seven hours in the emergency room, he was unable to urinate and felt worse and worse.
He added: “Tests showed my kidneys were failing, my liver was damaged and I had seven surgeries over the next two weeks to relieve the stress of a leg infection.
“Eventually, I woke up with severe trauma and several broken ribs from cardiac arrest, but I was still alive.”
Three months later, he was finally discharged from the hospital. He said: “I have a prosthetic leg now but I’m not fully recovered. What happened to me will affect the rest of my life.
“Every day I wish I didn’t take codamol and go home. Maybe things would have been different if I had said something.”
What should I do
If you think someone may have sepsis, be sure to seek emergency medical advice or go directly to the hospital.
Not everyone will have typical symptoms. People who are very old, very young and have immune system problems may have unusual features that make diagnosis more difficult.
These people are at the highest risk of developing sepsis, so be extra vigilant.
Dr. Ron added: “Sepsis is more common in adults than in children. However, if you are a parent who suspects sepsis or your child is unwell, trust your gut.
“You know your child better than anyone with a medical degree, so be prepared to defend them and don’t leave your GP operating room or emergency room if you’re not happy.”
need to know
On World Sepsis Day, GP Dr Zoe Watson, founder of Wellgood Wellbeing, reveals everything you need to know regarding sepsis…
What is sepsis? Sometimes called sepsis or blood poisoning, sepsis is not a disease itself, but rather the body’s response to a serious infection that already exists.
For example, you may develop sepsis from pneumonia, the bite of an infected insect, or a viral infection such as herpes virus. Infections that cause sepsis are most commonly found in the lungs, urinary tract, skin, or gastrointestinal tract.
Why does it happen? Sepsis occurs when an infection you’ve already caught sets off a chain reaction throughout your body, releasing a flood of inflammatory chemicals to help fight the infection.
This also happens in normal infections, but in sepsis, the immune system basically overreacts and causes too many markers of inflammation to be released.
These chemicals begin to interfere with factors such as blood clotting and blood pressure, ultimately causing damage to the body’s internal organs.
If left untreated, sepsis can eventually develop into septic shock—the end stage of sepsis—where the body’s organs begin to shut down. If left untreated, sepsis can rapidly lead to tissue damage, organ failure, and death.
However, if caught early and the person is started on the right treatment (which varies depending on the type of microbes in the infection that caused sepsis), they can recover well.
symptom
Worryingly, the symptoms of sepsis are often very vague. It feels like a bad flu.
You may have: drowsiness, vomiting, diarrhea, fever, chills, muscle aches.
All of these symptoms are common in many viral diseases, so it is critical to establish objective evidence of sepsis with a physical examination and a good, clear medical history that outlines the timeline of the disease.
Was there any evidence of infection in the days preceding these symptoms? The cut on the hand looks angry and red?
Increased pain and frequency when urinating, might this indicate a urine infection?
Severe cough and breathing pain, might it be pneumonia?
Infection that has been given antibiotics but you are still very sick? All of these conditions should cause your “sepsis radar” to respond and seek further medical evaluation for you.