Trust marks global sepsis awareness day

On Friday 13 September 2019 the Trust will join World Sepsis Day with an event to raise awareness of an overlooked deadly disease that affects over 250,000 people every year in the UK, claiming at least 44,000 lives.

Sepsis occurs when the body’s response to an infection damages its own tissues and organs. Instead of local inflammation resulting from a local infection, the body’s entire system goes into inflammation.

Worldwide, over eight million people die from sepsis every year, and it is also a leading cause of maternal death. It is frequently under-diagnosed at an early stage – when it is still potentially reversible. Early recognition and treatment reduces sepsis mortality by 50 percent.

Yet, depending on country and education, sepsis is known only to 7 - 50 percent of people. Likewise, people do not know that sepsis can be prevented by vaccination and clean care. This lack of knowledge makes sepsis the number one preventable cause of death worldwide.

The annual World Sepsis Day, initiated by the Global Sepsis Alliance in 2012, falls in 2019 on Friday 13 September, and the Trust is marking the day with an event on Level 3 of the John Radcliffe Hospital’s Academic Centre, from 12.00 - 4.30pm.

Staff from the University of Oxford’s ‘Oxford Simulation, Teaching and Research (OxSTaR)’ will offer attendees a chance to see examples of sepsis in virtual reality. The Intensive Care Team will be bringing along mannequins to show how they manage patients with sepsis in the intensive care setting. Pharmacy staff will be on hand to explain the Sepsis Six – a bundle of medical therapies designed to reduce mortality in patients with sepsis – and to present a micro guide.

Guest speaker and sepsis survivor Nick White will give a talk about his experience to raise awareness of the importance of spotting early signs and reacting immediately.

This year’s message is simple:  ‘Stop sepsis, save lives’. In order to achieve that, people need to be more aware of the symptoms that might indicate sepsis, such as slurred speech, confusion, extreme shivering, muscle pain, lack of urination, purple rash or skin mottled and discoloured, fever or breathlessness. Sepsis can affect anyone, old or young, in a good health or with existing illnesses.

Nick White, 61, knew nothing about sepsis until last year. He was a businessman involved in shoemaking in Northamptonshire. He was in good health and very fit for his age having always done exercise to stay active.

On Monday 19 March 2018 Nick became ill with flu-like symptoms. By the Wednesday he had become very ill with intense shivering, high grade fever and vomiting. He called the GP surgery describing his symptoms, and was advised to take paracetamol and call back the next day if no better.

He called back on Thursday as his condition had worsened and was offered an immediate appointment with the nurse. However, on getting out of bed he started vomiting and was unable to get to the surgery. He was given another appointment the next day but was by then unable to move his legs. A doctor’s visit was requested, and after twice assessing him by telephone the doctor finally agreed to call on Friday PM. The doctor diagnosed rhabdomyolysis – a kidney condition.

His condition kept worsening and he was rushed to the A&E at Northampton General Hospital. Several hours later he was on life support in Intensive Care suffering from multiple organ failure. His kidneys stopped working and his limbs became very dark. He was diagnosed with septic shock. Despite dangerously low blood pressure, and the long time lapse from the first symptoms to the diagnosis, doctors somehow eventually managed to stabilise him.

Nick had to spend nearly three weeks in Critical Care and an extra three weeks on the renal ward with continuing dialysis. 

His body weight increased from 79kg to 116kg due to oedema fluids, until his kidneys slowly started working again a month after admission.

The initial infection, which caused the sepsis reaction, was eventually confirmed as leptospirosis – a very rare and nasty condition sometimes known as Weil’s disease and usually caught from rodents’ urine – how this was transmitted remains a mystery.

“I was very lucky,” Nick said, “chances of surviving septic shock at such a late stage are very low. There had been several signs of spotting it earlier but they were all missed.

“My wife did even wonder at some point if it could have been sepsis, but when I searched online for the symptoms I only recognised one of them, the intense shivering, so we thought it did not require going to A&E.

“Other symptoms came up later, like passing no urine, and confusion. Symptoms rarely occur all together or in any particular order. If I had been aware of what sepsis actually is, and how prevalent it is, I’m sure I would have responded with the urgency it requires.”

Nick feels very fortunate indeed, not only to have survived this advanced state of severe sepsis, but also not to lose his limbs, except for bits of toes. He is left with chronic kidney disease and he is no longer as active as he used to be.

Nick said: “The mental suffering can be as bad as the physical damage. Sepsis survivors often suffer from post-sepsis syndrome which brings a legacy of psychological and emotional problems. You are never quite the same person after sepsis.”

Now, Nick works part time and volunteers for UK Sepsis Trust to raise awareness of sepsis, and to help support others who went through sepsis, to try and help them get on with their lives.

Nick said: “I had no idea of how widespread sepsis is, and perhaps the best way to fight it is raising awareness. People need to really know the symptoms, know what it actually is, and react very quickly to have a much better chances of surviving. Not all the symptoms come at the same time and just one sign should be enough to ask the question ‘Could it be sepsis?’”

Sepsis is now a ‘Quality Priority’ for Oxford University Hospitals, and in May 2018 sepsis survivor Tom Ray was guest speaker at a conference for Trust nurses and midwives. The Trust has also produced a video, Geoff’s Story, in which a former patient describes his own experience of battling the condition.

You can find more information about sepsis at the following links:

sepsistrust.org

www.worldsepsisday.org

What Is Sepsis? (Video)

@WorldSepsisDay | #wsd19