Amy Widener is a real estate agent, mother of two, and a sepsis survivor. In 2013 Amy was in the best shape of her life. She had just finished a Disney half marathon and was reaping the benefits of her intense training, little did she know that that training was going to save her life. One night she woke up with extreme abdominal pain and was rushed to the emergency room where she learned that she had a kink in her intestines. They performed emergency surgery and released her after a little bit of recovery. Instead of Amy’s pain getting better with recovery after her surgery, it got worse. This resulted in subsequent trips to the E.R. only to be sent home with more and more antibiotics. Two months after her surgery she went into the emergency …show more content…
Unfortunately, infection places people in the hospital and infection is developed in the hospital. Two ways to contract sepsis are through hospital-caused infection, like in Amy Widener’s case, and through an infection caused by outside sources, for example a urinary tract infection in an elderly person. Everyone is capable of getting sepsis however cases appear most often in children under one year of age and in elderly older than sixty-five years. This is due to the body’s immune system being weaker in these demographics than in a person that has a built-up and strong immune system (“Sepsis Questions and Answers”). Sepsis occurs because of infection so the immune system plays a large role in the body’s defense mechanism. When people with already compromised immune systems develop an infection or are in an environment that infection is likely to occur, for example an unsanitary procedure in a hospital, then the body’s chances of being able to fight the infection off are greatly …show more content…
It starts as sepsis then progresses to severe sepsis and then septic shock. In the United States alone there are 751,000 cases of severe sepsis a year with a hospital mortality rate of 28.6% or 215,000 deaths a year. For comparison there are 180,000 deaths a year from heart attacks and 200,000 deaths a year from lung or breast cancer (Nguyen et al). When compared to the numbers for diseases that are talked about every day, it is staggering the impact that sepsis has. Not only is it a lethal disease but it is costly as well. Sepsis took up $16.7 billion in national hospital costs (Nguyen et
Daniels (2011) said that sepsis is one of the leading causes of death in hospital patient worldwide and severe sepsis causes around 37,000 deaths in the UK every year. Czura (2011) has defined it as a life-threatening condition that arises when the body’s response to infection injures its own tissues and organs and sepsis can be present in any patient and in any clinical setting. Based on the learner’s reading, she became aware of the importance of identifying the early inflammatory markers such as temperature less than 36 degrees or more than 38.3 degrees, heart rate greater than 90 beats per minute (bpm), respiratory rate greater than 20 breaths/minute, altered mental state, white cell count lesser than 4g/l or greater than 12g/l and blood glucose greater than 7.7 millimoles for non-diabetic patients. Presence of any two of these will follow further test and if sepsis is indicated then commence the sepsis six care bundle within the hour, contact the doctor and critical care outreach team. The sepsis six care bundle which was developed by Daniels et al (2010) has shown to improve delivery of reliable care across a range of clinical settings which is now used in many UK
Luna C., a 28-year-old Spanish female, came into the E.R., due to fatigue, and a fever of 102.3°F, a sore throat and abdominal pains. Her symptoms have been ongoing for the past two days. Luna C., is a nurse who has recently traveled to Liberia in West Africa to aid in the healthcare facilities they had available. She came home 5 days before coming into the E.R. without any signs or symptoms of illness. When she initially came to the hospital, she didn’t inform the doctors or nurses that she had traveled out of the country. She was sent home after receiving fluids intravenously. On day 10, she arrived back to the emergency room complaining of fatigue, a fever of 106.7°F, severe headache and abdominal pain along with profuse diarrhea,
Septic shock, also known as sepsis, bacteremic shock, endotoxic shock, and warm shock, occurs as a response to an infection that has spread to the blood and tissue (medline.gov). Any type of fungi, virus, and bacteria can be a cause of the condition.
According to the Clinical Excellence Commission (2014), approximately 6,000 deaths per annum are caused by sepsis in Australia alone. These mortality figures are higher than breast cancer (2,864) and prostate cancer (3,235) combined (Cancer Australia, 2014). Despite advances in modern medicine and increased understanding of the need for timely recognition and intervention (Dellinger et al, 2013), sepsis remains the primary cause of death from infection worldwide (McClelland, 2014). Studies undertaken by The Sepsis Alliance (2014) and Schmidt et al, (2014) state that 40% of patients diagnosed with severe sepsis do not survive.
Hospital acquired infections are one of the most common complications of care in the hospital setting. Hospital acquired infections are infections that patients acquired during the stay in the hospital. These infections can cause an increase in the number of days the patients stay in the hospital. Hospital acquired infections make the patients worse or even cause death. “In the USA alone, hospital acquired infections cause about 1.7 million infections and 99,000 deaths per year”(secondary).
Healthcare-associated infections are a big issue in hospitals. They are the highest cause of morbidity and mortality rates in hospitalized patients. Due to increasing prevention methods, there has been a decrease in infections, but there is still a way to go. In detail, common infections are central line-associated bloodstream infections, catheter care urinary tract infections, surgical site infections and transmission of Clostridium difficile.
In the documentary, Hunting the Nightmare Bacteria, reporter David Hoffman investigates this new untreatable infection along two individuals and a bacterial virus within a hospital. The first individual Hoffman investigates is Addie Rerecich of Arizona, she was treated for a staph infection with antibiotics, but other complications arise. Addie had a lung transplant, she was given several different antibiotics, but her body became pan-bacteria, non-resistance to the bacteria. Addie’s life was on the edge, she had to be on life support, and finally she received new lungs. The transplant helped Addie but it would take years before could go back to normal before the infection. The second individual is David Ricci; he had his leg amputated in India after a train accident. The antibiotic treatment he received became toxic to his body increasing problems. While in India, he underwent surgery almost every day because of infections he was developing. Back in Seattle, doctors found the NDM-1 resistance gene in his body; NDM-1 gene is resistance to almost all antib...
The purpose of this project is sepsis prevention and reduction of sepsis-related mortality in patients who are admitted into the ICU. Early detection and treatment of infection with antimicrobials and antibiotics, in addition to utilization of preventative measures should ultimately decrease antibiotic resistance, recurrences of resistant infection [that could potentially develop into sepsis], and decrease mortality in patients admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU). Education of clinicians, patients, and families are essential to stop the spread of infection that could ultimately result in the formation of sepsis.
The HESI Patient Review modules exposed me to three critical concepts in the nursing profession – cellular regulation, infection, and immunity. It did not stand as the terms, themselves, that were elaborated on, but rather, patient case scenarios that directly related to these three concepts. To create a foundation, I will provide a basic definition for the terms. Cellular regulation refers to,” all functions carried out within a cell to maintain homeostasis, including its responses to extracellular signals (e.g., hormones, cytokines, and neurotransmitters) and the way each cell produces an intracellular response” (Giddens, 2017). To maintain homeostasis, within a cell, two primary functions must occur - cellular
As the whole family has to deal with health concerns on a daily basis, her perspective on health is grim. She has been misdiagnosed by two doctors, and has tried many medications to get her symptoms under control but nothing has worked for her. Although undergoing mistrials and missteps in her journey, she has maintained good relationsh...
Restatement of thesis: Hospital Acquired Infections (HAIs) may cause unexpected life-threatening illness and undue financial strain for patients and their families by significantly increasing hospital length of stay and the cost of treatment for these infections.
According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) (2014), “the number of times people were in the hospital with sepsis or septicemia (another word for sepsis) increased from 621,000 in the year 2000 to 1,141,000 in 2008. Between 28 and 50 percent of people who get sepsis die”. Sepsis is a complication of serious infection and has a high mortality rate. The CDC (2014) also mentioned the high risk groups are immunocompromised, infants and children, elderly, and patients with chronic illness. According to Gauer (2013), “Sepsis is responsible for 20% of all in-hospital deaths each year (210,000), which
In the past couple of decades, healthcare associated infections have increased. These infections are believed to be highly preventable but there are several reasons that account for the increase of such infections. For example, associated bloodstream infections are on a rise yet their prevention is something that is very basic.
Its 7:30pm. It’s a Wednesday evening. A little 4 year old boy Chad and his mother Kelsey are at home. “It’s time for a bath” Kelsey calls. Chad walks down the hallway and into the bathroom. She already had the water filled up. As he steps into the bubbly water, a bump on chads stomach catches her eye. At the time she wasn’t thinking it was anything that could harm her son so she let it rest for a few days. She started realizing chad was having shortness of breath, he was losing weight, his lymph nodes were swelling, he would sweat badly during night time night, started seeing purple spots, and he would bruise really easy. She watched it on and off and it hasn’t changed. Its Monday now and she’s worried. She went ahead and took him to the doctor.
Severe sepsis and septic shock are major public health problems globally and are associated with substantial morbidity and mortality. The role of corticosteroid treatment in patients with severe sepsis and septic shock remains controversial despite the studies that have been using since decades.