Meet Fiona – Sepsis Australia

JUST ASK, COULD IT BE SEPSIS?

Sepsis is a life-threatening response to any infection that progresses quickly and requires immediate attention. Know the signs and symptoms (one or all of the following may be present).

SIGNS AND SYMPTOMS OF SEPSIS

Rapid breathing

Rapid heart rate

Confusion, slurred speech or disorientation

Fever or shivering

Muscle pain

Not passing urine

Discoloured skin

WHAT YOU SHOULD DO!

Early-stage sepsis:

Sufferers are generally unwell, may display one or all of the signs and symptoms, feel worse than when previously sick and there is concern
Contact healthdirect at https://www.healthdirect.gov.au/ OR Call 1800 022 222 (24 hours) and ask…could it be sepsis?

Later stage sepsis:

Sufferers are seriously unwell, likely to display significant changes in multiple signs and symptoms, feel like they might die and there is serious concern
CALL 000 Ambulance or if quicker go immediately to the closest Emergency Department and ask….could it be sepsis?

Key considerations:

If concerned get advice immediately
If seriously concerned get treatment immediately
Inflammation due to infection is normal but in sepsis the inflammation response is uncontrolled, it may start mildly but rapidly escalate to critical illness
Sepsis is difficult to recognise as it may not have an obvious cause, it can look like viral or bacterial illnesses such as flu, gastro or urinary tract infection
Trust your intuition…if it doesn’t feel right TAKE ACTION and always ask…could it be sepsis?

symptom checker Call 000

In the early hours of 12 July 2015, I was settling my daughter after she’d woken. As I left her room I banged my elbow quite hard but gave it a rub and went back to bed. An hour or so later I awoke to golf ball size swelling on my elbow and extreme pain. Within two hours I was shivering uncontrollably and rocking back and forth screaming for my husband to take me to hospital.

I spent 12 hours in emergency with staff checking me for a dislocated elbow and various other ideas. No one knew what was wrong. My heart rate kept increasing and my blood pressure was dropping.

I arrived in a ward in the evening and my blood pressure was routinely checked. It had hit 60/40. The nurse advised she needed to call a team from ICU as I was in septic shock. That nurse saved my life.

While I was prepped for emergency surgery, they put a phone to my ear and asked me to quickly let my husband know what was going on. They let me know I was very, very sick and this was very serious. It then hit me; I might not wake up. A sudden calm came over me. I told myself there’s nothing I can do. If I wake up, I’m going to make it.

I woke up in the early hours of the following morning on a ventilator. Immediately I wanted to fight. I was moaning and breathing around the tube. I knew then I was alive and was going to make it.

It took me a good 3 months to feel remotely normal and my ongoing side effects have been memory loss and brain fog, weakened immune system, fever and chills (I say I have a broken thermostat). My biggest challenge has been others’ understanding. At work I was asked “when will your arm be better”? My arm was the least of my worries.

Today I’m just so thankful to be alive. I count my blessings daily and don’t sweat the small stuff so much. I have an amazing husband and beautiful daughter plus the love and support of our wider family and friends.

I want to do whatever I can to increase sepsis awareness – particularly here in Australia. I try and spread awareness any way I can, every day. Hearing other sepsis and septic shock stories has been therapeutic for me and I encourage anyone that would like to make contact to do so. I created the Australia and NZ Sepsis Support Group to help people who have experienced sepsis to share their stories, advice and build a community. We now have over 660 members in our very active group.