Most people recover from mild sepsis, but the mortality rate for septic shock is about 40%. Also, an episode of severe sepsis places you at higher risk of future infections.
An estimated 27% of people with sepsis in hospitals and 42% of people in intensive care units will die.
When treatment or medical intervention is missing, sepsis is a leading cause of death, more significant than breast cancer, lung cancer, or heart attack. Research shows that the condition can kill an affected person in as little as 12 hours.
Many people who survive sepsis recover completely and their lives return to normal. However, as with some other illnesses requiring intensive medical care, some patients have long-term effects.
Sepsis is treatable if it's identified and treated quickly. In most cases it leads to full recovery with no lasting problems.
Many patients who survive severe sepsis recover completely, and their lives return to normal. But some people can have permanent organ damage. For example, in someone who already has impaired kidneys, sepsis can lead to kidney failure that requires lifelong dialysis.
If sepsis is not treated early, it can turn into septic shock and cause your organs to fail. This is life threatening.
Patients with sepsis accounted for 45% of ICU bed days and 33% of hospital bed days. The ICU length of stay (LOS) was between 4 and 8 days and the median hospital LOS was 18 days.
Septic shock: Septic shock is the last stage of sepsis and is defined by extremely low blood pressure, despite lots of IV (intravenous) fluids.
You cannot catch sepsis from another person. It happens when your body overreacts to an infection.
The condition can arise suddenly and progress quickly, and it's often hard to recognize. Sepsis was once commonly known as “blood poisoning.” It was almost always deadly. Today, even with early treatment, sepsis kills about 1 in 5 affected people.
Healthcare professionals should treat sepsis with antibiotics as soon as possible. Antibiotics are critical tools for treating life-threatening infections, like those that can lead to sepsis. However, as antibiotic resistance grows, infections are becoming more difficult to treat.
"When an infection reaches a certain point, this can happen in a matter of hours." Sepsis usually starts out as an infection in just one part of the body, such as a skin wound or a urinary tract infection, Tracey says.
Bacterial infections are the most common cause of sepsis. Sepsis can also be caused by fungal, parasitic, or viral infections. The source of the infection can be any of a number of places throughout the body.
Referred to in the report as "the final common pathway to death" for severe infectious diseases, it's a leading cause of death in hospitals, with an estimated mortality of 26.7% in hospital patients and 42.6% in intensive care unit patients treated for sepsis.
Severe breathlessness or sleepiness. It feels like you're going to die or pass out. Skin mottled or discoloured. An extremely high or a very low temperature; repeated vomiting; seizures; and a rash which doesn't fade when you press a glass against it are also possible 'red flags'.
On average, non-POA sepsis cases spent nearly double the amount time in the hospital, in the ICU, and on mechanical ventilation compared with sepsis POA cases, that is, from 7.7 to 17.6 days, from 5.2 to 10.1 days, and from 6.6 to 10.1 days, respectively.
Sepsis can lead to tissue damage, organ failure and even death if it isn't treated quickly. In Maranhas' case, it led to a medically induced coma and 46 days in the hospital in intensive care.
While most patients with sepsis recover fully, those patients who go on to develop severe complications such as septic shock may need additional support and possibly rehabilitation on their road to recovery. Managing sepsis at home, after discharge from the hospital includes addressing several factors.
“Sepsis is challenging because often the inciting event is a common infection. Patients often don't think of common infections as potentially deadly ones.”
Examples include ceftriaxone (Rocephin), piperacillin-tazobactam, cefepime (Maxipime), ceftazidime (Fortaz), vancomycin (Firvanq), ciprofloxacin (Cipro), and levofloxacin (Levaquin). If you have mild sepsis, you may receive a prescription for antibiotics to take at home.
The diagnosis of sepsis in critically ill patients is challenging, because it can be complicated by the presence of inflammation as a result of other underlying disease processes and prior use of antibiotics making cultures negative.
Without timely treatment, sepsis can rapidly lead to tissue damage, organ failure, and death.
Weakness or aching muscles. Not passing much (or any) urine. Feeling very hot or cold, chills or shivering. Feeling confused, disoriented, or slurring your speech.