Jason Watkins appeared on ITV’s Good Morning Britain to talk about Sepsis and the launch of a pocket guide for parents by the UK Sepsis Trust. He also mentioned SLOW and our work helping bereaved parents.
The main thrust though was given to raising awareness of the terrible form of blood poisoning, Sepsis, and the risk it poses to new born babies and toddlers. Jason and his partner lost their two year old daughter Maude to the infection in 2011.
The Department of Health has announced a paediatric toolkit to help healthcare professionals drive down the death rate from the infection. The toolkit was designed by the UK Sepsis Trust who produced the parent’s pocket guide covering the symptoms shown below.
The programme’s site also listed 10 facts about sepsis which we’ve reproduced below. It’s a terrible infection which with more awareness can see the death rate reduced.
- Sepsis is when the body starts to fight an infection, it can trigger the immune system to go into overdrive, damaging the body’s own tissues and organs. Untreated, sepsis leads to multiple organ failure and death.
- Symptoms of sepsis include a rapid heart rate, difficulty breathing, low blood pressure, a change in behaviour (confusion, drowsiness or slurring words – patients can appear drunk), hypothermia, diarrhoea, changes in skin colour, sore throats and flu-like symptoms.
- If diagnosed and treated in the first hour following presentation with sepsis, the patient has more than an 80% survival rate. After the sixth hour, the patient only has a 30% survival rate.
- In the UK, its estimated that we see 102,000 cases of severe sepsis every year, with a staggering 37,000 deaths. In comparison, breast cancer claims around 12,000 lives each year.
- Sepsis is one of the biggest direct causes of death in pregnancy in the UK
- It consumes over a third of our most expensive hospital beds in Intensive Care and costs the NHS around £2.5 billion a year
- Global figures: In the developing world, sepsis kills more than 6 million neonates and children yearly. Every hour, about 1000 people die from sepsis worldwide.
- The UK Sepsis Trust public awareness poll in 2014 found that 40% of the public had heard the word sepsis but of those, only 40% knew it was a medical emergency
- Awareness is the number one cure for sepsis. Raising recognition of the disease and increasing the number of patients treated in the Golden Hour is the single biggest attempt we can make to save lives.
- With public education, better knowledge and awareness among doctors, nurses and paramedics, and by redesigning the way patients with sepsis are treated, we can save 12,500 lives per year in the UK and shave £170 million from the NHS budget
List by Dr Ron Daniels, CEO of the UK Sepsis Trust and frontline NHS Consultant
How do you spot sepsis in a child?
Sepsis symptom card – The UK Sepsis Trust
You can read the article on the Good Morning Britain site and retweet the link also shown above too.
The UK Sepsis Trust are here if you’d like more information and if you are in need of support following the loss of a child to sepsis or any other reason please get in contact with us here.
