Sepsis Early Detection

Understanding Sepsis

You may be wondering, what exactly is Sepsis? Well, it happens when your body gets super sick after you get an infection. Usually your body helps to fight off infections but with sepsis, it starts to hurt itself while trying to fight off the infection. The crazy thing is this can happen from things like a bad cut, cold or fever which we all get.

If you don’t get help in time it can make your organs stop working since it targets your vital ones—heart, lungs, or the brain. After that comes death.

How to Spot it

Sepsis can seem like the usual cold or flu we all occasionally get at first but there are some signs to look out for:

A high or low temperature
Fast breathing
Fast heartbeat
Feeling confused or sleepy
Pale, cold, or sweaty skin
Saying things that don’t make sense

Thankfully, if that seems confusing there is an acronym people use to remember what to look for called T.I.M.E:

T – Temperature (either hot or cold)

I – Infection (your already feeling sick)

M – Mental changes (acting weird or sleepy)

E – Extremely sick (feels like the worst

Why It’s Important to Act Fast

Sepsis is scary because after you get it you only have a few hours to take action. It gets worse very quickly. If you wait too long, you or someone else with sepsis can go into septic shock which happens when your blood pressure suddenly drops and your body starts shutting down. When this happens a doctor or nurse will use something called qSOFA to see how bad your symptoms are. It’s used to determine three things:

How fast someone is breathing
Confusion
Low blood pressure

If two or more of these are happening then that’s when they know they need to act fast.

How Doctors Help

These are the things a doctor might do once they think someone has sepsis:

Give strong medicine through an IV which is usually an antibiotic
Give plenty of water through an IV which is to help circulate blood flow
And lastly they’ll help the person breathe by giving them an oxygen mask or something that will keep oxygen ginger throughout their body

However, in most cases a person will be treated in the intensive care unit (ICU).

How to Stay Safe

The best way to stop sepsis is to stop the infection before it gets worse. You should:

Wash your hands frequently
Take care of all cuts
Gets your vaccines
Go to the doctor when you feel really sick or think something is wrong

By learning the signs of sepsis you become more educated on the matter and more aware. Now that you know about it you might be able to spot the symptoms or help someone get the help they need. So although sepsis is very dangerous, we can stop it if we know the signs and get help fast.