What causes up to 48,000 deaths a year in the UK, a 20% mortality rate, and affects 25,000 children every year?
Answer: sepsis.
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Former delivery boy Dave Crum, 41, is well aware of the damage it can cause.
He developed the disease after straining his groin while playing football in January 2020 and ended up in misery at A&E.
Dave, from Blackpool, said: “An emergency room doctor saw me come out of my cubicle, rushed me to bed, told my wife I was dying and put me in a medically induced coma for the operation. I didn’t know I was fighting necrotizing fasciitis. “
Dave has been rescued seven times: on his 40th birthday, his family “had to make the painful decision to amputate my entire left leg from my hip.”
Sepsis affects 245,000 people in the UK every year, 80,000 of whom experience life-changing effects like Dave.
Dr Ron Daniels, founder and CEO of Sepsis Trust (sepsistrust.org), an intensive care consultant at Birmingham University Hospitals, said: “Research shows that the number of people diagnosed is on the rise, but in reality we are just 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 shelter, where he took the pain reliever codamol, and was sent home. But that night he couldn’t sleep.
“From one to ten, ten are the most painful, I feel like I’m 50,” he said.
signage to check at home
In medicine, we use various clinical scales to assess someone’s sepsis.
We focus on six parameters: respiratory rate, heart rate, blood pressure, oxygen levels, consciousness and body temperature. At home, however, you will not have the kit. Instead, check out these signs:
to 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 / humid environment: Cold hands and feet. This is a more worrying sign because it means the body is starting to shut down and divert blood to internal organs. This, in combination with any of the other signs above, requires immediate medical attention.
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After seven hours in the emergency room, she 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 due to cardiac arrest, but I was still alive.”
Three months later, he was finally released from the hospital. He said: “Now I have a prosthetic leg but I’m not completely healed. What happened to me will affect the rest of my life.
“Every day I would like not to 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 see an emergency doctor or go straight to the hospital.
Not everyone will have typical symptoms. Very old, very young, and people with immune system problems may have unusual characteristics that make diagnosis more difficult.
These people are at a higher risk of developing sepsis, so be extremely 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 instincts.
“You know your child better than anyone with a medical degree, so be prepared to stand up for him and don’t leave your GP’s operating room or emergency room if you’re not happy.”
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need to know
On the occasion of World Sepsis Day, Dr. Zoe Watson, founder of Wellgood Wellbeing, reveals everything you need to know about sepsis …
What is sepsis? Sometimes called sepsis or blood poisoning, sepsis is not a disease in itself, but rather the body’s response to a serious infection that already exists.
For example, you could develop sepsis from pneumonia, an infected insect bite, or a viral infection such as the herpes virus. Infections that cause sepsis are most commonly found in the lungs, urinary tract, skin, or gastrointestinal tract.
Why does this happen? Sepsis occurs when an infection you’ve already contracted triggers 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 essentially overreacts and causes too many inflammation markers to be released.
These chemicals begin to interfere with factors such as blood clotting and blood pressure, eventually causing damage to the body’s internal organs.
If left untreated, sepsis can eventually turn into septic shock, the end-stage of sepsis, in which the body’s organs begin to shut down. Left untreated, sepsis can quickly lead to tissue damage, organ failure, and death.
However, if caught early and the person is started with the right treatment (which varies depending on the type of microbes in the infection that caused the sepsis), they can recover well.
symptom
Worryingly, the symptoms of sepsis are often very vague. Seems like a bad flu.
You may have: sleepiness, vomiting, diarrhea, fever, chills, body aches.
All of these symptoms are common in many viral diseases, so it is critical to establish objective evidence of sepsis with a physical exam and a good, clear medical history outlining the disease history.
Was there any evidence of infection in the days leading up to these symptoms? Does the cut on the hand look angry and red?
Increased pain and frequency when urinating, could it indicate a urine infection?
Severe cough and breathing pain, could it be pneumonia?
Infection that has been given antibiotics but are you still very sick? All of these conditions should cause your “sepsis radar” to respond and seek further medical evaluation for you.
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