I nearly died from sepsis – and ignorance of this condition is killing millions
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I nearly died from sepsis – and ignorance of this condition is killing millions
Michael J Porter, University of Central Lancashire
A visit to family in Glasgow for Christmas in 2015 nearly had a tragic ending for me. Two days earlier I had been repairing the lock on my garden gate, when I scratched my hand on a nail. By the time I arrived in Glasgow I was feeling unwell. Twenty-four hours later I was in University Hospital Hairmyres in a coma. I had developed sepsis. My family were told that I had almost no chance of surviving the night.
I woke from my coma three months later and spent another year getting back to full health. I’m one of the lucky ones. Sepsis affects more than 30m people a year worldwide and kills an estimated 6m people, of whom nearly 2m are children. Of those who do survive, 40% will have post-sepsis syndrome, which leaves them with lasting physical and mental symptoms.
Sepsis starts with a viral or bacterial infection, usually of the...
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