a high temperature (fever) or low body temperature
chills and shivering
a fast heartbeat
fast breathing
>Symptoms of severe sepsis or septic shock
In some cases, symptoms of more severe sepsis or septic shock (when your blood pressure drops to a dangerously low level) develop.
These can include:
feeling dizzy or faint
a change in mental state – like confusion or disorientation
diarrhoea
nausea and vomiting
slurred speech
severe muscle pain
severe breathlessness
less urine production than normal – for example, not urinating for a day
cold, clammy and pale or mottled skin
loss of consciousness
I had no idea what sepsis was, until my dad died from it last year. Nobody talks about it, and yet, it’s responsible for 1-in-5 deaths worldwide (more than cancer). I don’t get why there’s so little discussion about it.
Sepsis is just awful.
I thought I had flu like symptoms a few years ago, called 111 and luckily the operator spotted the signs of sepsis and called me an ambulance who were with me in minutes.
Wish I could speak to that person and tell her she saved my life.
[deleted]
I went into A&E with sepsis due to an abscess in my parapharyngeal space (filled with Streptococcus anginosus which smells like caramel latte) and was turned away – without being properly checked over – because it was due to a dental issue. Went back a couple of hours later and was instantly admitted and the consultant there said they had two hours to get me into surgery. I passed out from lack of breath on the way into surgery. Was in there for a month overall. Took a couple of years to get over the PTSD caused by it, still not quite as strong as I was.
If they’d looked at the rash on my chin or looked in my mouth things may have been different.
My profile pic is from just before I went into surgery for the second time – the infection had turned me a bit crazy.
I had sepsis about 8 years ago, lived alone at the time. If my mother hadn’t popped in, i would have been dead, hospital for a week after.
Not fun
Lost my mum to sepsis. She had a black toe that she and her doctors just didn’t seem to worry about at all. Turns out her leg was infected inside the bone from her hip to her toes. She was terminal long before anyone found out. I always admired how tough she was, as she had so many other health issues that a black toe was honestly just another day in her life. Sounds stupid looking back on it. It’s no joke.
I had a spot/mark on my leg last year and didn’t think much of it.
Over the next couple of days the spot turned into a bruise/red mark the size of my first and I was feeling really unwell like the flu to the point I’d just fall asleep on the sofa and such which is very unlike me.
I don’t normally go to the doc but my missus said I should. Doctors was busy so said call back tomorrow morning, I felt worse later that day so missus made me ring back and they said to send a photo via their online system.
Doctor rang back within about 10 minutes saying I needed urgent medical treatment, turned out I had sepsis and was extremely ill. I was fine after treatment and a week or so but I felt absolutely awful and had no idea what sepsis even was.
Now I’ve read up on it and know about it it’s surprising how many people it kills. They even have sepsis posters in hospitals, doctors, pharmacies and on the side of ambulances!
Close family member nearly died of sepsis about two years ago. This family member is very vulnerable and tends to end up in hospital every two years or more so it’s been a case of near death experiences for most of their life and each time has come out worse and worse, it’s a bloody miracle they survived the last time.
It started with them getting an infection at school then getting another from the first hospital they went to. They ended up getting pneumonia too. Transferred to a second hospital who cured them but can only imagine what would have happened if they’d stayed at the first one.
A friend of mine passed away late last year from Sepsis, he had a nasty cut whilst on holiday in Egypt and it seems they didn’t treat it properly. Died a week later.
He did have diabetes however, and apparently diabetes and sepsis is a death sentence.
Wrong season for Flu, its spring so this was probably Covid. The lack of testing now means people don’t know what they have and the reduction in standard testing in hospitals means that its going to be a lot less common to see Covid directly on death certificates. Hence all the excess deaths.
Still 1 in 40 infected with Covid every day of the year, 70k died of it last year including the excess deaths.
Sepsis is a devastating condition that can take lives in a matter of hours. It’s important for everyone to be aware of the symptoms and seek medical attention as soon as possible if they suspect they may have it. My thoughts are with the family of the young woman who lost her life.
Sepsis kills very quickly and requires both timely diagnosis and treatment. One issue is that rapid diagnostics by lab cultures is not available in many hospitals, so long turnaround times in labs means that specific treatment takes longer to commence and less effective broad antibiotic treatment is used in the meantime. Pathology is a neglected part of the NHS and treating sepsis will be much more easy if more microbiology labs had access to advanced equipment that speeds up diagnosis.
13 comments
[NHS Sepsis Advice ](https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/sepsis/)
>Sepsis symptoms in older children and adults
Early symptoms of sepsis may include:
a high temperature (fever) or low body temperature
chills and shivering
a fast heartbeat
fast breathing
>Symptoms of severe sepsis or septic shock
In some cases, symptoms of more severe sepsis or septic shock (when your blood pressure drops to a dangerously low level) develop.
These can include:
feeling dizzy or faint
a change in mental state – like confusion or disorientation
diarrhoea
nausea and vomiting
slurred speech
severe muscle pain
severe breathlessness
less urine production than normal – for example, not urinating for a day
cold, clammy and pale or mottled skin
loss of consciousness
I had no idea what sepsis was, until my dad died from it last year. Nobody talks about it, and yet, it’s responsible for 1-in-5 deaths worldwide (more than cancer). I don’t get why there’s so little discussion about it.
Sepsis is just awful.
I thought I had flu like symptoms a few years ago, called 111 and luckily the operator spotted the signs of sepsis and called me an ambulance who were with me in minutes.
Wish I could speak to that person and tell her she saved my life.
[deleted]
I went into A&E with sepsis due to an abscess in my parapharyngeal space (filled with Streptococcus anginosus which smells like caramel latte) and was turned away – without being properly checked over – because it was due to a dental issue. Went back a couple of hours later and was instantly admitted and the consultant there said they had two hours to get me into surgery. I passed out from lack of breath on the way into surgery. Was in there for a month overall. Took a couple of years to get over the PTSD caused by it, still not quite as strong as I was.
If they’d looked at the rash on my chin or looked in my mouth things may have been different.
My profile pic is from just before I went into surgery for the second time – the infection had turned me a bit crazy.
I had sepsis about 8 years ago, lived alone at the time. If my mother hadn’t popped in, i would have been dead, hospital for a week after.
Not fun
Lost my mum to sepsis. She had a black toe that she and her doctors just didn’t seem to worry about at all. Turns out her leg was infected inside the bone from her hip to her toes. She was terminal long before anyone found out. I always admired how tough she was, as she had so many other health issues that a black toe was honestly just another day in her life. Sounds stupid looking back on it. It’s no joke.
I had a spot/mark on my leg last year and didn’t think much of it.
Over the next couple of days the spot turned into a bruise/red mark the size of my first and I was feeling really unwell like the flu to the point I’d just fall asleep on the sofa and such which is very unlike me.
I don’t normally go to the doc but my missus said I should. Doctors was busy so said call back tomorrow morning, I felt worse later that day so missus made me ring back and they said to send a photo via their online system.
Doctor rang back within about 10 minutes saying I needed urgent medical treatment, turned out I had sepsis and was extremely ill. I was fine after treatment and a week or so but I felt absolutely awful and had no idea what sepsis even was.
Now I’ve read up on it and know about it it’s surprising how many people it kills. They even have sepsis posters in hospitals, doctors, pharmacies and on the side of ambulances!
Close family member nearly died of sepsis about two years ago. This family member is very vulnerable and tends to end up in hospital every two years or more so it’s been a case of near death experiences for most of their life and each time has come out worse and worse, it’s a bloody miracle they survived the last time.
It started with them getting an infection at school then getting another from the first hospital they went to. They ended up getting pneumonia too. Transferred to a second hospital who cured them but can only imagine what would have happened if they’d stayed at the first one.
A friend of mine passed away late last year from Sepsis, he had a nasty cut whilst on holiday in Egypt and it seems they didn’t treat it properly. Died a week later.
He did have diabetes however, and apparently diabetes and sepsis is a death sentence.
Wrong season for Flu, its spring so this was probably Covid. The lack of testing now means people don’t know what they have and the reduction in standard testing in hospitals means that its going to be a lot less common to see Covid directly on death certificates. Hence all the excess deaths.
Still 1 in 40 infected with Covid every day of the year, 70k died of it last year including the excess deaths.
Sepsis is a devastating condition that can take lives in a matter of hours. It’s important for everyone to be aware of the symptoms and seek medical attention as soon as possible if they suspect they may have it. My thoughts are with the family of the young woman who lost her life.
Sepsis kills very quickly and requires both timely diagnosis and treatment. One issue is that rapid diagnostics by lab cultures is not available in many hospitals, so long turnaround times in labs means that specific treatment takes longer to commence and less effective broad antibiotic treatment is used in the meantime. Pathology is a neglected part of the NHS and treating sepsis will be much more easy if more microbiology labs had access to advanced equipment that speeds up diagnosis.