In the year ending April 2017, there were 15,722 deaths in hospital or within 30 days of discharge, where sepsis was the leading cause, and Prof Sir Brian Jarman, Director of the Dr Foster research unit at Imperial College in London, believes staff shortages and overcrowding on wards are partly to blame.
However, an NHS England spokesperson rebutted this comment, stating that the increased figures were due to a huge effort across the NHS to increase the clinical recognition of sepsis and the improved methods of recording and classifying deaths attributed to Sepsis.
What is Sepsis?
Sepsis is a problem with the immune system going into overdrive, triggered by infections. It starts with an infection that can come from anywhere - even a contaminated cut or insect bite.
Normally, your immune system kicks in to fight the infection and stop it spreading. However, if the infection spreads quickly around the body, the immune system launches a massive immune response to fight it. This can also be a problem as the immune response can have catastrophic effects on the body, leading to septic shock, organ failure and even death.
Sepsis is a car crash illness. It is indiscriminate and can affect anyone. It kills nearly a third of all the people it touches. That’s more than breast, bowel and prostate cancer combined. However, if it is spotted early it is treatable and preventable.
Symptoms include:
• slurred speech
• extreme shivering or muscle pain
• passing no urine in a day
• severe breathlessness
• mottled or discoloured skin
Symptoms in young children include:
• looks mottled, bluish or pale
• lethargy or being difficult to wake
• abnormally cold to the touch
• breathing very fast
• a rash that does not fade when you press it
• seizures or convulsions
According to the chief executive of the UK Sepsis Trust and an intensive care consultant, Dr Ron Daniels, sepsis is one of the most common causes of death in the UK, responsible for killing up to 44,000 people a year. Dr Daniels went on to say that:
"It's very common that if someone dies of sepsis that it's coded or reported as simply being the underlying infection.
"So, they might die of sepsis in an intensive care unit with multiple organ failure - but they're recorded as a death from pneumonia. We need to fix that problem before we can truly understand the scale of sepsis.
"The best way for us to do that is to develop a prospective data system like a registry that exists for other conditions, so that we can really get a national picture of what's going on."
He added:
"The treatment for sepsis, if it's caught early enough, involves very basic interventions - looking for the source of the infection, giving antibiotics.
"For every hour we delay in giving antibiotics, the patient's risk of dying increases by a few per cent, so it's essential that we spot it early and deliver the basics of care quickly."
Sir Brian said:
"The biggest thing that's important seems to be the number of staff - doctors per bed.
"One of the secondary important things is the overcrowding of hospitals. The level of overcrowding shouldn't be more than 85% [bed occupancy], and it's been going over 90% in recent years."
Early diagnosis and treatment of sepsis is vital to preventing deterioration and permanent injury, aiding prompt recovery and patient survival.
Terrence Canning Executive Director of UK Sepsis Trust in Wales, sadly lost his brother Mark to sepsis and this triggered his involvement in the charity. He is campaigning for more research/funding and awareness surrounding Sepsis. Terence commented:
“Awareness and education is everything. People need to know what sepsis is and what it can do. We need to get to a stage where public and health professionals alike are thinking about and recognise sepsis. They need to see it coming because it hides really well. As Mohammed Ali said, “His hands can’t hit what his eyes can’t see”
Ironically, Ali recently died from sepsis.
How to Make a Medical Negligence Sepsis Claim
People can become very ill and sometimes sustain permanent injury or even die as a result of sepsis. This can occur even when medical professionals provide excellent care. However, sometimes injury can result from substandard medical care resulting in delays and multi-organ failure resulting in delays in diagnosis and commencing effective treatment.
To bring a successful clinical negligence claim for injury caused by sepsis, it is also necessary to establish that with an appropriate standard of care the outcome for the claimant or the deceased would have been different. In order to successfully establish causation a wide range of expert opinion may be required in a number of expert disciplines.
At Howells we understand what a devastating impact sepsis can have on patients and their families. We also know how important obtaining compensation can be to help with rehabilitation of those who survive and the financial worries of those that are bereaved as a result of sepsis.
Learn more about making a claim by speaking to our expert medical negligence solicitors today.
