What is Sepsis?

12 Feb 2016 Posted by: Karen Bach

After the recent sad news of William Mead's death from Sepsis, a preventable form of blood poisoning, KalliKids Champion Dee has written the following blog to raise awareness amongst parents of what to look out for.

The sad story of 1 year old William has been in the press today, a heartbreaking story of the little boy from Penryn who died on 14 December 2014. At the time of William’s death it was thought it happened by natural causes, however on June 2015 it was found from a coroner's inquest that William had in fact died from a treatable blood poisoning (septicaemia); the cause of this was a chest infection which he had for a long time.

The reason this has been in the press is because William’s mother sought medical help a number of times before he sadly passed away.

I must admit before today I hadn’t heard of Sepsis, which is when the body’s immune systems steps into over drive in response to an infection. Sepsis is so dangerous that it can cause organ damage, shock and in poor William’s case death. Because it can be difficult to identify it is known as a silent killer, it can come on from a number of infections, mostly commonly those are urinary and lung infections. The most common groups to be affected are the very young and the elderly.

 

Symptoms of Sepsis could be:

  • A fever
  • Breathlessness
  • Mottled Skin
  • Discolored Skin
  • Shivering

William’s death has highlighted the need for more awareness of this silent killer and the need for extra local NHS 111 service training so they recognise when cases need to be escalated further to avoid tragic circumstances like this happening again.

 

If you are worried about your child’s health, always trust your instincts and don't feel like you are being a pain always reach out to the NHS again and again if necessary.

 

Dee Besant, Mummy of 3!

 

 


This entry was posted in Kids health and food and tagged Health , Health Care, baby .

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