Journeying through Sepsis: What is sepsis?

Transcript

Dr. Paula Lister: Sepsis it's relatively common. So we see about 450 children admitted to intensive cares across Queensland every year. Sepsis is a tricky condition because it starts off as a common infection, which many children have throughout their lives. But it deteriorates and the body's response to that infection, the immunity response is such that it starts to attack its own organs and then they start to malfunction.

And that is a quick spiral into real, real sickness and real critically ill children. And we need to jump in quickly with therapy to try and turn that around.

It can be very quick, so that's often what parents tell you is that they, they just can't believe how quickly it's happened. It can be a matter of hours from a child being relatively well at home Probably taking some fluid to being in intensive care on a ventilator literally four or five hours later.

Amanda Harley: So sepsis is difficult to diagnose in the early stages and that is the challenge for clinicians. That's where you as a parent are really important because you know your child best and you know how they've been unwell in the past. And you might think that this illness is a little bit different.

Dr. Paula Lister: It's actually mainly a clinical diagnosis, so you need an experienced doctor or nurse to have a good look at the child and they pull together a constellation of signs and symptoms and those are, the symptoms are often of having had a fever, having been unwell with some sort of infection, whether it's a cough, cold, scratch from a cat, something like that.

Then a history from the parents that This isn't like any other kind of infection that they've had before. Something about this is different. They're more unwell. They're not responding to treatment. The experience is different this time. As well as clinician coming in and looking at very fast heart rate.

So if you feel them, they feel. Like they've got cold hands and feet. Sometimes they can present with a rash, particularly a rash that doesn't go away if you do a glass test which is pushing a glass to skinto see if it goes away. Sometimes they can be breathing really quite fast and in small babies, if it goes really slow, that's also a problem that we worry about.

We look at the urine output, looking at the kidney functions, but also at the brain, which is the most important thing. And these children are often lethargic, don't want to feed, irritable and different than usual.

Amanda Harley: And I like to think of sepsis as a puzzle. It's not just one piece. It's not just one picture. It's multiple pieces of the puzzle that together can help a clinician diagnose sepsis. So it's also important to remember that sepsis affects every child differently. And this is unpredictable. So you might be admitted to the intensive care unit. Your child might be on a breathing machine or that you might be on the ward being treated with some antibiotics for a few days. Your child may even be discharged in a couple of days time. So it affects everyone differently and no journey is exactly the same.

We're aware that only 14 percent of Australians have actually heard of sepsis, so you're not alone. And we're really working on improving awareness in the community. So what we do know about paediatric sepsis is early recognition and a quick diagnosis and subsequent early treatment is really important for your child. Here in Queensland we're leading multiple research studies that's going to impact practice in Queensland, Australia and also internationally.

So you can be reassured that there's many ways that we're looking into recognising and treating your child to deliver the best care here in Queensland.