Sepsis - raise awareness

[whoruntheworldgirls]

Not AIBU but following a session I've just attended i wanted to share this as wide as i could

sepsistrust.org/about/about-the-charity/

I do think there is confusion about the names - my mum would have referred to it as blood poisoning, then it became septicaemia and my generation sepsis.

Regardless whatever it is called raising awareness can only be a good thing. My fil nearly died in 2017 from it, still has issues now.

I was in A&E waiting for 10 hours with my 10 year old telling them she had sepsis and that it was visibly tracking. Was completely ignored and told to wait even after triage. Finally got to see the Dr and she ended up in hospital for days. Ridiculous thing was the signs in the waiting room and on the ambulances stating sped of which sepsis needed to be treated. Yes, got an apology and lessons will be learned from the trust and luckily dd survived. All these campaigns are pointless if when you get there you are left to wait for an extreme number of hours.

My Dad has had sepsis twice. Both times his GP surgery told him to go home and continue taking his antibiotics (that weren't working). Both times he ended up being taken into hospital that night by ambulance, both times he almost died. It is extremely important, but it's all well and good raising awareness among the general population when medical professionals don't seem to recognise it or take it seriously. Perhaps a campaign of that nature would be well placed. I could tell how sick he was just from a phone conversation the second time.

It does take hold so quickly. We had a person at work (care facility) who was checked upon at 8:30 and was walking around, talking, normal self. 9:15 they started saying they felt unwell, vomited their breakfast straight after eating . By 10am I was calling 999 because they couldn't sit up anymore, no longer speaking/making sense, bloated abdomen and blotchy skin.

I phoned 999 and specifically said I queried sepsis.... Lady on the phone was going to send an ambulance on non emergency call (up to 6 hour wait...despite me saying I don't think they would be with us in 6 hours time).... until her supervisor pointed out that sepsis was queried. Asked again why I suspected it and changed it to an emergency call. They survived but weren't the same again afterwards.

I was in hospital yesterday with my 1 year old who they identified as having sepsis markers, we were then left in the waiting room with no obs for 3 hours! Sadly I had to make a fuss to get him checked, I know they are busy but don't tell me he has sepsis markers and then leave us..

Thank you so much for sharing. I wish I had seen this 10 weeks ago. My husband age 43 had what we thought was pain from piles and totally separately had a nasty virus or bug and was a bit delirious.

He had every symptom except the rash. He had a severe septic infection from a huge perianal abscess. His GP acted so fast as his BP was 75/45, and several hours later was in surgery and went into septic shock just as they took him in. He was just in the right place at the right time and they saved him, if he had stayed at home a couple more hours he wouldn't have stood a chance.

This week he has gone back to work 4 hours a day running our family business. He is still quite weak, and dizzy when he stands up, and can't remember things as well as he could.

But he is alive, if I had known the symptoms beforehand I would have insisted he went to the GP probably 3 days earlier.

Thanks for sharing. My cousin's husband died of Sepsis a few years ago. Very fit and healthy one day, dead the next. It was so fast.

Lost my first child to
this. Still haven’t got over it 14 years later.

Thank you for raising awareness.

I'm so very sorry x

Sepsis is always at the forefront of my mind when my children are ill. It takes hold so quickly, so please please know the symptoms as it can be completely devastating.

A family friend set up this charity (FEAT). His doctor wife had a scan at 37 week pregnant and all was well. The next evening, she was rushed to hospital after suddenly falling ill from sepsis. Their daughter was stillborn early the next morning and his partner died the next day. So utterly tragic - he lost his wife and daughter within 24hrs and was left bringing up his 2 year old son alone (and has done a marvelous job)

I had sepsis after the birth of my youngest DC.

I had a section and instead of feeling better day on day I felt steadily worse until I took ill on day five. My symptoms were:

• lethargy, I just couldn't be bothered about anything and was listless on the sofa with no interest in anything

• I couldn't eat or drink. It wasn't that I lacked the ability, it was more that the very thought of putting food or water into my mouth was repellent. Thinking about having a sip of water or a bite of food disgusted me so much I just couldn't eat or drink anything

• I was cold, the most cold I've ever been and I couldn't get warm at all, it was like my bones were cold. I had on a vest, a t-shirt, fleece pyjamas, a dressing gown and a blanket and I was still cold

Then as it progressed I started to vomit and couldn't stop until I was at the point where I was vomiting green and brown bile, you can imagine how much fun that was with caesarean stitches.

The coldness ramped up until I was violently shivering.

I stopped making sense when I was talking to DH, I was having conversations with people who weren't there, my sense of time was jumbled up and I kept thinking that the baby was our previous baby, at one point I completely forgot I'd even had a baby and couldn't work out what this crying thing was beside me.

I'd rang the ward and the midwife multiple times over the course of the day to tell them I was unwell, the midwife even came to the house and hadn't picked up. I was told I was just tired, I was then told I'd just had a section and it's normal to feel a bit drained, I was told maybe I'd picked up a big from my other not-at-all unwell children, I was told maybe I had food poisoning.

It was only when DH rang out of hours and insisted someone come see me that I was helped. When he described my symptoms the GP said they were coming to the house and was there within half an hour, they rang an ambulance and when I was admitted to hospital it was finally picked up. Vomiting bile all over the examination room and then having a very lucid two way conversation with my long-dead nana probably helped sharpen the doctors focus a bit.

I had retained placental tissue that had caused an infection and I was very lucky because at the point DH rang out of hours I'd been told by the midwife to go to bed and sleep it off. The hospital said if I'd done that then I'd have died. I also got the standard lessons learned and we're sorry letter. It left me with a full on fear of hospitals and a mistrust of hospital doctors especially at the hospital who missed it.

My advice is that if you suspect sepsis even the tiniest little bit then make a fuss. Firmly ask every member of staff you come in contact with "could it be sepsis?" and insist that they make a note that you asked, if they refuse to assess/test for it then insist that is noted too.

My friends father died of sepsis and multi organ failure a couple of days ago.

he was 85 years old and there were a host of contributing factors, including neglect from GP - failing to send round nurses to change dressings - the smell was awful, through the whole house. When a district nurse did come round, she called an ambulance immediately.

he was in A&E for over 24 hours before he finally got a bed.

it was too late for any treatment. Everything (including fluids and nutrition) was withdrawn on Friday morning and the poor man hung on until Tuesday.

he had a slow and painful death.

Dh thought I was taking the piss when I had sepsis as I couldn't get out of bed and we had a busy morning planned and needed to get 3 kids to 3 different places at overlapping times.

I called 111 in the morning who booked me an out of hours appointment in the afternoon, they knew I was on antibiotics for an infection because I told them.

I was finally seen after throwing up black fluid and dh causing a fuss, the receptionist wasn't impressed but the gp apparently took 1 look, put me in a wheelchair and took me to a&e. I don't remember anything about that as was pretty much out of it by then.
Dh said they hooked me straight up to a drip and had the crash cart at the bottom of the bed.

Nowadays I get a bit more sympathy when I'm ill.

Sepsis is so sneaky. I tend to get the flu (despite jabs) and I'm usually quite unwell with it but always recover. A couple of years ago I had the flu again and I thought I was getting better, but I ended up going downhill. Vomiting lots, not being able to drink, shivering, and I struggled to breathe. I started getting really confused so DH rang the GP surgery and the GP luckily was on it and sent an ambulance immediately. Went to A&E and my CRP was through the roof and I was diagnosed with sepsis and pneumonia. It's amazing how quickly IV antibiotics worked as I was on the mend after around 24 hours.

What I would say stood out for me was the sense of doom. I had a distinct feeling that "it" wanted me dead, and I think that's what made DH think it wasn't just a normal flu.

This is one of the things that scares me the most but the scariest thing is not to be believed and treated in time

Had a UTI that turned into Sepsis. Paramedics called at midnight, ironically the ambulance was plastered with "Don't miss Sepsis" stickers. Multiple signs I jad Sepsis but was given paracetamol for pain and temperature and told to sleep it off.
Thankfully DH was at home the following day and rushed me to A&E when I turned grey. Even the A&E nurse was shocked at the sight of me. They took what felt like pints of blood for tests, I still remember through my delirium the heat of the vial when she popped it in my hand. She said she'd never felt blood that hot.
I honestly felt like I was dying. I later found out that the antibiotics they put me on is what they use for Anthrax poisoning.
A few years later I lost a colleague to Sepsis. He had flu like symptoms. They amputated his limbs in an attempt to save him but within a week of his symptoms starting he was gone.

I'm shocked by all these horror stories.
I had sepsis after my section nearly 18 years ago. My DP at the time took me to the GP who sent me straight back to hospital. I was treated immediately. Makes me realise how lucky I was if they are now struggling to diagnose.

I'm so so sorry for all of you who have lost people to this.
There is so much more work to do to raise awareness and clearly a lot more in the medical profession. I don't work for the charity, as i said we had a session at work that one of their CEO's hosted and it shocked me how much this is dismissed and how many people die from it each year that i wanted to do something to get the info out there, Mumsnet is a great platform for that.

I nearly died from sepsis in 2014. From feeling well to life support in 48 hours.

Lucky for me, the paramedics picked it up, but I told my DH not to ring an ambulance. If he had listened, I wouldn’t have survived the night. I was still in hospital for over 2 months (in and out).

My dad died from sepsis in 2019 , when they said that’s what he had , I had heard of it but I didn’t have any idea what it was or how serious it is . This defiantly needs more awareness . Thank you for sharing op

I've had SEPSIS twice. The first time, I was working in a GP Surgery and had jokingly mentioned to the staff room full of GPs that I had drunk 2 litres of water that day and hadn't peed once - they all laughed and not one raised a concern. Later than night I was unconscious in ICU. That was 4 years ago and I think awareness has been raised considerably since then, but thank you for sharing OP, it's so important.

Thank you for this thread. My DD had sepsis at 3 and a half weeks old and nearly died.
Anything to rase awareness for this gets my full support.

I can't thank the wonderful staff at Birmingham Children's Hospital enough for saving her life.

My now ex got sepsis after a big operation. It turns out he had all the signs of it for a week before I eventually called an ambulance. Long story but he was travelling from one country to another by car but before he left his own country, had already started with the rigours.

So, things to look out for which aren’t mentioned are severe night sweats and the come with that shivering where they can’t warm up no matter what.

Fast shallow breathing and fast heartbeat, his was at 115 consistently.

Fever and projectile vomiting and hallucinations which came with the high temps. Weakness, lethargy and talking gibberish.

He’s now my ex due to being a violent narcissist and I think sometimes that I looked after him too well 🤔

We lost my 3 1/2 year old Godson to sepsis in 2019. He presented with gastro symptoms on the Monday, placed on life support on Tuesday and he passed away on Thursday. His lovely mum works hard at raising sepsis awareness, it gives her some comfort in her overwhelming grief.