To ask if you know the signs of sepsis?

[SE13Mummy]

This news story has been in the press, on the radio/TV this week because Sam, the son of friends of ours, died of sepsis. He shouldn't have.

Chatting to other friends, it seems as though very many people have never heard of sepsis although most are aware of the symptoms of meningitis. One of the reasons the Morrish family have gone public with their experience is to raise awareness of sepsis; Sam wouldn't have died if he'd received antibiotics.

The Sepsis Trust has lots of information, including this symptoms checklist.

I know about sepsis, but only as a result of the work of my friend Craig.

His wife, Fiona Agnew, died of sepsis shortly after delivering their daughter, stillborn. She was a GP and had arranged only the day before for Craig to be treated after he became dangerously ill from sepsis.

Since she died, leaving behind Craig and their 2 year old son, he has worked so so hard to set up the charity in her name, to raise sepsis awareness. It's a very good cause. He is a superstar.

Links here to the story. The first is daily mail, but if you want to avoid clicking, then if you go to the website then there's more info there.

www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2669893/Mummys-gone-I-love-Daddy-The-impossibly-moving-tale-little-boy-lost-mother-unborn-baby-sister-one-terrible-blow-gave-father-reason-live.html

Www.featuk.org.uk

I had never heard of sepsis, let alone familiarity with the symptoms. Thanks OP

so sorry to hear about all these losses

i did not know the symptoms
the hardest part seems to be getting a dr to realise how serious it could be if you present with these symptoms

I am sorry for the loss of Sam.

My father became very ill with sepsis, went into kidney and cardiac and respiratory failure. Thanks to my GP to whom we shall be ever grateful as he recognised it and admitted him
The district hospital were good at getting antibiotics in but slow at dealing with the complications and reluctant to get specialist advice, for which I shall never forgive them as dad went blind and suffered a stroke, needlessly. It was horrid knowing there was treatment and there are regional and national experts trained and willing to give the local hospitals excellent advice, but some doctors are just too slow and arrogant to seek it. I was shocked.

What's worrying is that I have helped people to A and E on the basis of them having these symptoms, and then the people are fobbed off in triage rather than tests being done promptly. On the basis of the information here, they would die if they actually had sepsis.

Thanks for posting this. I have read the list of symptoms and absorbed.

It happend to my Mil. She thought she had flu and thought she could ride it through without bothering anyone. She couldn't. Terrible.

So sorry for all your losses and thank you for posting this.

I ended up with sepsis when giving birth to eldest. Category 1 section under GA. When I came round I could actually feel my lungs filling with fluid, like I was drowning. Went in to multiple organ failure. Thankfully the antibiotics I was being pumped full of started to work, I remained on high dependency for 24 hours with a new born to breast feed. The antibiotics caused the most agonising thrush in my breasts, and a horrific MRSA infection in my feet. Fucking awful experience, but ultimately myself and eldest both very lucky to be here.
How I ever went on to have another one is nothing short of a miracle. I still get occasional traumatic flashbacks.

The scary thing with sepsis is that it looks like lots of other more mundane and non deadly things, and it takes hold so quickly.

My DH thought I was feeling better (I'd been ill for about a week) when I got up and came and sat with him downstairs. Actually it was because I thought I was might die alone upstairs and I wanted to be near him. I wasn't well enough to articulate the feeling. Luckily my DM popped in to visit me and dragged me off to OOH, then hospital where she sat by me all day everyday for many, many weeks. But that feeling was probably the scariest bit of the whole thing. Very strange to see it actually listed as a symptom.

RIP Sam.

I had sepsis some years ago. Very frightening.

I had been to A&E at the weekend and been given ABs. I was still feeling terrible but assumed they would kick in. Wednesday morning I had some bloods taken before a minor surgical procedure. I had barely got home before I got a call from the consultant demanding I came straight back into hospital now as I was dangerously ill. I stood up and vomitted everywhere as my husband carried me to the car.

I can't believe how well I can remember those details, and more, even so long later.

Thank you. Didn't know the symptoms. Do now

Good thread. Sorry for your loss, what a tragic thing to happen.
I work in ICU and am involved in medical research looking at finding ways to support and manage septic patients. Sadly it is an underfunded area, however the international surviving sepsis campaign has done much to raise awareness.
www.survivingsepsis.org/Pages/default.aspx
This is a good article from the BMJ which analysed nearly 10 years of mortality data and found that nearly 5% of deaths in the UK were directly attributable to sepsis. bmjopen.bmj.com/content/3/8/e002586.full
Nearly 30% of ICU admissions are for sepsis and sometimes, despite it being recognised early and everything being done it overwhelms people.

CHICKENPOX was the culprit with my 1 year old daughter. As her immune system was low she got a staph and staph infection through the blisters. The out of hours service (dr needed an interpreter) said it was just it was a bad case of chickenpox. I was going mad through lack of sleep but my friend (thank goodness) said take her again. We ended up at hospital but no one assessed her during the night - they put us on a disused ward. When my husband phoned and a nurse appeared and cheerily said 'yes they're fine' I grabbed the phone and screamed down it saying she's getting even worse and no ones listening. Suddenly she was on drips and fluids. I had to sign forms to let her have some drugs that weren't authorised as they threw everything at her. Liquid poo was pouring out once she was rehydrated, infecting the hundreds of open blisters she had. They scooped a chunk of her side away - the pus shot across the room and filled a plastic cup the doctor had. 6 weeks later we were still dressing her wounds but apart from scars she's absolutely fine.

God help anyone who mentions chickenpox parties to me!

Please look out for spreading redness or blackness around the blisters, vomiting, diarrhoea, eyes rolling in back of head, not sleeping but really lethargic, very high temperature, shallow fast breathing. And don't be put off by doctors saying it's just chickenpox if you are really worried.

I had no idea of the symptoms so thank you.

I am so sorry about little Sam. How heartbreaking :(

Johnthedogg because my dd and ds both had facial cellulitus i was sooo wary about them developing more when they went on to have chickenpox. I remember rushing my dd up to the out of hours doctors because she was all quiet and not herself. She was fine in the end but i really worried about her getting cellulitus again being hospitalised down to her infection incase of sepsis.

So sorry about your friend's gorgeous little boy.

I had this as a result of mastitis that overnight made me so ill I couldn't stand up. I was put on a very strong antibiotic which I was allergic to. It nearly killed me! Anyway, it was all sorted out with a different antibiotic thankfully.

Breastfeeding mums - be aware that mastitis can make you very ill, deal with it straight away.

Thank you MNHQ for making this a discussion of the day. Anything that raises awareness is good.

Sam's story has been in the press again this week here and on PMQs.

I know I posted this months ago but Sam's story is in the press again today because of a new plan to reduce deaths from sepsis.

My daughter had sepsis at 3 months old. Another sign is an unusual cry. Thankfully I took her to a and e. My gp later said its highly likely the practice would have assumed a virus and sent her home in absence of immediate tests

Oh, I've had sepsis.

Had pretty bad sore throat, but didn't want to bother to GP for simple tonsillitis. Went from moving furniture around on the Saturday to being unable to move on the Sunday. Spent the entire day throwing up and had slime coming out of my mouth a lot . Next morning I felt better, got up, had a cup of tea and couldn't get off the sofa. I literally could not move my legs, everything hurt a lot. Luckily the phone was on the sofa, called a friend to come rescue me. He turned up and I still couldn't move so he had to break in to my house. He found me shivering- temp on admission was 43c!- and delirious and screaming in pain whenever he tried to touch me.

Ambulance came and I told them I was fine, had made up feeling bad as I was bored . They took me to hosp and then it was all systems go once Drs realised how ill I was. Put me into a COMA for a few days, called my family to come and say goodbye... And then I woke up. It was horrible. All the drugs made me think the nurses were trying to kill me and I was too weak to even write messages or talk.

A few complications and awful procedures later and I went from HDU one day, the ward the next and then home. I'd say it took 4 months to feel "normal" again

The only reason I am alive is because I was ridiculously fit and healthy at the time. Every time my lungs were x-rayed they were complimented on being so big . The drugs they gave me damaged my hearing as well as killing the infection so I am deaf in one ear now but other than that I'm fighting fit.

The nurses were amazing, one to one care for a week, really makes you appreciate how hard they work and how many of the crap jobs they get.

Yes I do.

When my daughter was 6 months old I took her to GP twice and A&E 4 times and was told she was fine ( I knew something was up but was laughed out of the room each time)
It was on day 3 of illness she turned blue and start shaking and struggling to breathe while I was on the phone to NHS Direct. The lady on the phone told me to get to hospital as it would be quicker than an ambulance as I live two minutes away from A&E..
Got to hospital and was told to take a seat in the waiting room, it wasn't until I started shouting in the waiting room that all of a sudden she was rushed off onto a bed to be looked after. She was in hospital for 2 weeks and I had to return for IV antibiotics for another 10 days after that. Consultant told me she had hours before her organs were affected! Also to add because of their mistakes they were very reluctant to tell me what she had and I only found out it was sepsis when I raided her notes. It all came out in the end but when I asked what sepsis was I was told 'oh it just an infection'. When I told the consultant his A&E doctors ignored my concerns he said 'thank you for your perseverance'.

The worst thing ever, I had never heard of it until then, I am pleased you are making others aware of this, as it was hell and could of been treated at a much earlier stage had I been listened to. Trust your instincts at all times with this , doctors don't take you seriously they just say the usual 'it's a virus'

So sorry about your friend's loss. DS5 and I both had sepsis when he was born. I didn't realise at the time how serious it was.

Forgot to say, with the multiple organ failure I turned a beautiful pale yellow colour and all the drugs swelled me up so my family now call me "lemonface". Nice to know as they were told I was dying, one of them was thinking that I looked like a swollen lemon!

I didn't, unfortunately I do now.
I almost died from severe sepsis in 2012, I had been in bed for a few days with what I thought was just a really bad cold/flu type thing, and it was only because I knew I was becoming dehydrated that I asked my son to take me to hospital, by this stage I could barely talk, I had a fever and couldn't open my eyes, I went into multiple organ failure and spent a while in the HDU. The doctors put my survival down to my then high level of fitness. It has been two years and I've still not recovered completely.

Thanks for the update, good news hopefully