COUGH THAT LED TO LOST LIMBS
sepsis can strike anyone, but death is far from inevitable. It is easy to treat with a strong dose of antibiotics,
delivered intravenously, as well as fluids; however it’s largely unknown to the
public and poorly recognised by doctors. Last week, the Mail launched a campaign to increase
awareness of the dangers of sepsis, a campaign supported by the mother of
William Mead, the one-year-old Cornish boy killed by sepsis in 2014 after
warning signs were missed by doctors and the NHS 111 helpline.
Every year 44,000 people in the UK are killed by sepsis.
What’s more, while 100,000 survive, many are left with
serious long-term complications, such as irreversible damage to lungs, heart,
kidneys and brain, and limb amputations.
In yet another sign of the NHS’s failure to respond properly
to sepsis, there is no national register of cases, so it’s not known for
certain how many who survive sepsis are affected in the long term, though it’s
thought as many as 30 per cent will have a significant complication, says Dr
Ron Daniels of the UK Sepsis Trust.
There’s little doubt how much sepsis survivor Corinne
Hutton’s life has been changed by the condition. In June 2013, the 43-year-old
mother-of-one developed a cough.
At the time, she was running her own design company and she
tried over-the-counter medication, but after two weeks saw her GP. He
prescribed antibiotics for a suspected respiratory infection.
‘I went home, feeling poorly like you would if you had a
chest infection, and went to bed,’ says Corinne, who lives in Lochwinnoch in
Renfrewshire. ‘The next day, I was dying in hospital.’
That morning she’d stayed in bed, while her four-year-old
son Rory was looked after by his father. About mid-morning she became alarmed
when she vomited blood.
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