Sepsis Caused by a Dog Bite Infection
A failure to consider the possibility of a patient developing sepsis can be devastating in its long-term physical impact on the patient.
What is sepsis?
Sepsis is a condition prompted by the body's over-reaction to an infection somewhere in the body. For example, this can be an abdominal infection, a chest infection or a urinary tract infection. It can also be an infection caused by a dog bite.
In a healthy person, the body's immune system should respond to an infection and try to fight it off. However, if the patient's immune system responds in a dysregulated way, the effects can be catastrophic.
Sepsis can very quickly become life-threatening as it starts to impact on the body's major organs. As sepsis causes a drop in blood pressure, the blood supply to the body's organs starts to fail and the patient will start to suffer from organ dysfunction.
The impact of sepsis
In those patients who survive, the physical and psychological impact can be severe from dysfunction of major organs such as the kidney or spleen, to blindness or amputation.
In the UK, over 40,000 people die from sepsis each year, of which over 10,000 are believed to be avoidable.
Diagnosing sepsis
For this reason, when diagnosing patients suffering with symptoms of infection, such as a high temperature and a fast heartbeat, sepsis should be considered as a possibility. It is preferable to err on the side of caution rather than risk delaying a diagnosis.
There is currently no specific blood test which will recognise sepsis and diagnosis is by assessing an array of symptoms such as the above plus identifying an alteration in the patient's mental state. The patient is also likely to be experiencing a reduced blood pressure.
Treating sepsis
Current guidelines state that a patient considered to be suffering from sepsis should receive intravenous antibiotics within one hour. A delay in diagnosis and treatment is likely to increase the patient's risk of a fatal outcome.
Medical negligence
If you or a loved one are suffering the appalling long-term effect of sepsis due to a failure to treat your symptoms appropriately, you may wish to consider making a claim for compensation.
Contact us to discuss your situation with a specialist medical negligence solicitor who will be happy to advise you.
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