Sepsis Infections May Cause Wrongful Death According to Elder Abuse Lawyer Steven Peck

Written by Adam Peck Category: Elder Law January 26th, 2013 3 min read

Septic infection or sepsis is a condition that can quickly get worse and can lead to death if not treated properly.

It is important to seek medical attention if you suspect the possibility of sepsis. Unfortunately, there is not a universal set of symptoms that apply to all patients with sepsis. But, when you understand how sepsis develops from infection, you will be able to recognize it when you see it. In essence, sepsis is the body’s response to infection.

Increased blood flow is what causes the redness of the inflammatory response in our body. Biologically, increasing blood circulation is an attempt to physically flush the infection out. Blood vessels in the skin dilate and the increased blood flow can cause flushing or redness of the skin. But this is not always visible in all patients with sepsis. You can see some other changes that can be related to increased blood flow.

The heart rate goes up as the heart is trying to pump more blood. If the infection is somewhere in the body that you can look at, you will see the actual inflammatory response at the site of the infection.

For example, an infection in the skin and soft tissue of the leg will cause a visible redness, warmth, swelling and pain on the surface of the leg.

A similar response happens throughout the body in sepsis, but it is more prominent at the site of the initial infection.

The heat of inflammation can be seen as increased body temperature or fever. Most patients with infection and sepsis have fever. Some elderly patients may not be able to mount a fever but you may still see them having shaking chills instead of fever.

The swelling of the inflammation in sepsis is at two levels: the organ level and the body level. The example of leg infection above shows the swelling at the organ level.

If the infection is in an internal organ, the swelling can only be seen in X-rays or CAT scans. At the body level, the increased amount of blood and inflammatory chemicals causes swelling by allowing more fluids to escape into the tissue from the blood vessels.

The anger or distress in sepsis can be seen as pain, irritability and sometimes confusion and delirium.

Although inflammatory response to sepsis is designed to fight infection, it can harm the body itself when it gets overwhelming. You can remember this by imagining the flames of the fire burning out the body itself. As the body becomes exhausted with the inflammatory response, it begins to crumble. The blood pressure may go down and the redness may turn into pale, sweaty and calmly skin. When this happens, the patient can collapse without medical support.

When you see someone with a possible infection and you detect the signs of overwhelming inflammation, you can help that person by getting them to ER right away. Please do not wait until their body is at the verge of collapse.

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Written by Adam Peck

Expertise: Personal Injury

Adam J. Peck, ESQ is a principal with Peck Law Group, APC. In 2008, Mr. Adam Peck received his Juris Doctorate from Whittier Law School where he graduated Cum Laude. His practice is primarily dedicated to representing Elders, Dependent Adults, along with their loved ones and family members, who have suffered horrific personal injuries.