It had to take the death of Patty Duke last week at the age of 69, for sepsis to hit a new level of awareness. Thanks to her family listing sepsis as her cause of death, following a ruptured intestine, millions of people around the world read the word for the first time and wondered what it was.Â
Several friends sent me fresh stories about sepsis, written by journalists who were just getting to know about the condition – bacteria in the blood caused by the body’s overreaction to an infection. (That’s the Coles Notes explanation.) I sobbed as I scrolled through the links, in a mixture of relief and an ongoing form of PTSD. Thousands of people around the world, including doctors, scientists and survivors, volunteer their time to try to spread awareness about sepsis. I was honoured to be one of two survivors to take part in an international, live webinar last year, on World Sepsis Day, September 13. And here it was, in The Huffington Post, CBS, NBC, CTV, Yahoo and CBC.
I have to keep mentioning it, when appropriate. I have to use my voice to help make sure that as many people as possible know what sepsis is. Five years ago, had I known about sepsis, I probably could have avoided getting to the brink of a coma. I would have insisted that someone check my blood. But I didn’t know until it was almost too late.
Last week, a London Knights billet “Mom” died from sepsis after cutting her foot. Knights’ forward Matthew Tkachuk is broken-hearted. He’s the third Knight the family has hosted and he thought of her as a second Mom. She joins a growing list of those who have needlessly died because of sepsis. Now, thanks to Patty Duke’s family, you will see “sepsis” when you Google her name. In life she brought awareness and understanding to fellow sufferers who were bipolar. In death, she brings awareness of sepsis.