Health Beat: Sepsis, the silent killer | Health Beat

September is Sepsis Awareness Month.

According to the CDC, at least 1.7 million adults in the United States develop sepsis and nearly 270,000 die from it. It is the leading cause of death in American hospitals.

When your body is infected, your immune system works to fight it, but it can shut down and damage your normal tissues and organs, leading to widespread inflammation throughout your body. Cases of sepsis are on the rise and symptoms often go unnoticed until it is too late.

“I felt a little scratch in my throat after my shift and went home. Over the next two days, I started to get worse,” said firefighter Christopher Askew.

Christopher had a streptococcal infection which progressed to sepsis. “I didn’t think I was going to make it. Honestly, I felt like death,” he said.

“The purpose of inflammation is to kill the body. But what happens is it gets a little out of control. And so the patient’s body suffers the consequences,” explained Dr. Elizabeth A. Middleton of Critical Care Medicine at University of Utah Health.

The CDC reports that cases of sepsis are increasing. Experts say the overuse of antibiotics has created a breeding ground for superbugs. The population is also aging, which means more people are living with weakened immune systems and an increasing number of people are suffering from chronic illnesses.

“People who are immunocompromised, who don’t have an intact immune system, are at high risk of developing sepsis, and that’s because they are at greater risk of getting an infection,” Dr. Middleton said.

Middleton says they’re teaching their health care providers to spot the signs early and implementing programs to promote judicious use of antibiotics to prevent superbugs.

For Askew, it was a battle he had to win. “I never want to abandon my family. I have four boys aged nine, seven, five and four,” he said.

With the support of his family and friends, Askew recovered and is now back in action.

Dr. Middleton says when looking for symptoms, consider the acronym TIME: T for temperature, I for infection, M for mental decline, and E for extremely ill.