Health pg 14 - 6aug2024

The Irish Sepsis Foundation is a charity focused on raising awareness about sepsis and advocating for better protocols and support services. Sepsis is a life-threatening condition that occurs when the body's response to infection causes damage to its own tissues and organs. It can lead to septic shock and multiple organ failure if not treated promptly. The foundation is working to reduce the number of sepsis cases, which currently stands at 15,000 per year in Ireland, with 3,000 resulting in death. They are urging the HSE to champion protocols and sepsis awareness in hospitals and are also working on providing support groups for survivors and their families. The Health Floss on Kalamara Community Radio. A weekly program supported by funding from Commissioner Nauman with a television license fee. Oh Doctor, I'm in trouble. Well, goodness gracious me. For every time a certain man is standing next to me, a flush comes to my face and my pulse begins to race. It goes boom, bodee, boom, bodee, boom, bodee, boom, bodee, boom, bodee, boom, bodee, boom, boom, boom. Boom, bodee, boom, bodee, boom, bodee, boom. Well, goodness gracious me. Right, well you're welcome back after the ad. And I have my next guest on the line. And I'm delighted to introduce James Corcoran, who is on the Board of Trustees for the Irish Sepsis Foundation. So, first of all, James, you're very, very welcome to Kalamara Community Radio. Hi Marion, how are you keeping? Thanks very much for having me on. Well, you're very welcome. And I suppose first of all, I mean, I think we've probably all heard of sepsis. You may not know very much about it, but we've all heard of sepsis and the disastrous effects that it can have on people. And, I mean, it makes the news not, you know, reasonably regularly, unfortunately. So, but first of all, tell us a bit about the Irish Sepsis Foundation. You know, what is it and how did it come about? Yeah, no problem. So, it was originally started up by Darren O'Malley, who was a medical barrister alongside Stephen Kerr, who used to play with Ireland. He's a former clubber for Ireland International. And Stephen's mother, unfortunately, passed away from sepsis. And Darren had a lot of involvement with sepsis cases throughout her career. Now, I then came on board after about two or three weeks when it was set up back in September 2022. So, we're really only in our infancy, but we've made great strides in such a short period of time. I got involved because my sister, unfortunately, passed away from sepsis when she was only 37 years of age, leaving behind two children. So, we're advocating as much as we possibly can to basically have better protocols in hospitals, but more educational campaigns as well. So, it's, as you were saying, man, it's in the news quite a lot. Sepsis is not something we want to hear. We want to drive that 15,000 cases a year down as much as we possibly can. That's a remarkable number, isn't it? 15,000 cases a year. I mean, that really is a huge number. And, unfortunately, from that 15,000 cases, 3,000 die from it. So, that's a sizable number. From recent media outlets there, they've been kind of saying that the cases have gone up as well. We're kind of awaiting kind of the information from the HSE as well to see what's actually happening and what way we can actually tackle it ourselves. Right. Now, you yourself are not a medical person. I think I'm right in saying that. Yeah, that would be correct. I'm a volunteer. Exactly. No, it's just that I don't want the listeners to not be clear on that. It's just a matter of clarification, really. Yeah. So, you do know, obviously, quite a lot about this because you're working with the Foundation and so on. So, I mean, first, what exactly is it? I mean, what is sepsis? So, like to explain what sepsis is, right, it's a life-threatening condition that arises when the body's response to infection causes injury to its own tissues and organs. So, it can lead to septic shock, which I'm sure a lot of people would know of anyway, and then it can either lead to multiple organ failure and death if not prompted treatment. It's one of the most preventable conditions in the world, but if it's not looked after in time, it can potentially lead to death. We do use an acronym to make people remember a bit more easily. So, it goes after sepsis. So, S would be slurred speech or confusion. E is extreme shivering or muscle pain or fever. P then is passing no urine all day. And then S is severe breathlessness. I immediately feel like you might die. And then S, again, is skin mottled or discolored. A lot of the cases, we kind of have a lot of people saying that they feel like that they're going to die. Obviously, we're not medical professionals and leave that to them, but what we would say is always just ask, could it be sepsis if you're at your GP, just to rule it out. That would be following an infection. So, if you haven't had an infection and you do get symptoms similar to that, it's probably not sepsis. Would that be correct to say or not? You can get it from a graze or a wound. So, it can be something very minor, in fact. Yeah, it can go towards an infection. So, it's just to probably kind of treat any kind of open wounds or anything as well, like so. But primarily, you're looking at infections, yes. So, really, the first thing is to try to avoid infections as far as you possibly can, which, of course, is not always avoidable. But then, you know, if you get any of the symptoms that you mentioned there, sort of fever, rapid heart rate, I've got in front of me here because it's on a very interesting press release that you issued, extreme fatigue, there's quite a number of things. If you feel any of those and you think you may have had an infection or have an infection, really, you should get to the doctor pretty fast. Yeah, it is. That's kind of the essence, like, and I know, especially ourselves, that we're kind of wary not to go to the doctor and sometimes, like, you're just saying it might be a flu, it might be just gastroenteritis. But, unfortunately, sepsis does mimic other conditions. So, like, some people, like, might have a flu. Some people might have gastroenteritis and they might just pass it off as that and they say, look, yeah, I'll get through it, it's no problem. But then, like, unfortunately, the other side of it is, like, you're wasting time, like, by just kind of not going to a doctor anyway, you know. So, like, sepsis can be kind of triggered by infections in the lung, like, you know, pneumonia, kind of urinary tract, skin and gastrointestinal tract as well. It seems from some of the things I'm reading in here, it's not terribly easy for even, you know, for doctors, either GPs or hospital doctors to diagnose sometimes and that sometimes can hold up treatment. Exactly, like, for ourselves, like, as we kind of do as much research as we can, like, we're finding, like, doctors have kind of said, look, to explain the kind of pathway, like, that they would need to take is because, as I was saying, it mimics other conditions. So, when people come in, it's possibly a case of looking, it could be this, it could be that. And obviously, I can't speak on the medical professional side of things, but they obviously need to kind of take a route that they will go themselves. But that's why I'm kind of referring back to, like, having better protocols in hospitals, like, because I know it's not as prevalent out there in the medical world, like, and I suppose, like, it's starting to come to light with a lot more cases, like, and I kind of want it to be a bit more in hospitals as much as we possibly can, like, because we do get calls and people do advise, look, they kind of passed it off, like, you know, it'll be fine and all that, like, and we don't want those kind of scenarios, like, we want to ensure that all medical professionals are aware of something, do know what to do, like, and it starts with kind of ourselves trying to get it out there as much as we possibly can. I know that your board, of which you are one, have been in front of the Erectus Health Committee and you are urging the HSE to champion protocols and sepsis awareness in hospitals. In what way are you going about that? So recently we had conversations with the HSE who have done, like, a social media campaign on getting kind of the signs and symptoms out. Now we're having conversations with the HSE sepsis team soon enough, basically wanting to hear what's happening, because I was at that meeting myself back in November the 15th and they've kind of advised, yes, we are going to look into it, we are looking to put more finances into it as well, which is important, like, because as we're saying, like, 3,000 is way too much, like, so what we're doing is, firstly, we're pushing the Taoiseach and also the Minister of Health as well, like, we've been inundating them with emails and unfortunately they've come back and said their schedule is a bit too busy at the moment, like, so, which is a bit hard to hear, like, because especially... Well, it certainly is, yeah, you sort of feel like there's 3,000 people a year dying from it, yes. Exactly, like, for cases like my sister, it's too late, like, but what we want to do as a charity to stop something like this happening to them, to anybody out there as well, like, but also what we find as well is the support services after, after when somebody has sepsis is shocking, like, there's hardly anything there, and we're working with just volunteers in different counties just to have support groups there for people that basically just want to know that they're not alone, like, because certain people will be dealing with, I suppose, the mental aspect afterwards, but it's not only just the survivor as well, it's the family who go through it, like, and I don't think that they see that, like, because it's more than just one person, like, unfortunately, my sister passed away, but it left a devastating effect on nearly, like, 20, 30 people who are very close to her, you know, so, like, and that's why, like, my other sister set up, like, the support group here in Cork, we have another lady called Katrina Flanagan, who does it in the Virginia Show Centre in Cavan, and we're currently working on Dublin and Wexford. Now, my aim with the board is to have nearly every, every county covered by XGER, like, and that's the hope that we want to do now, like, obviously, if the government helps us, then it speeds that up along, like, but I think what kind of stood out to me is what Ciarán Staunton said in that actual Oireachtas meeting, it's almost like you're pushing a boulder up a hill, so, like, the more hands that we get, the better we can push it up, like, but if we have the government helping us, then that process moves along a lot more smoother. Oh, okay. I have, I've got to leave it pretty much there, but I just, before I do, do you have a website, or do you have somewhere, you're a charity, if somebody listening would like to donate, how do they go about it? Yeah, so it's www.sepsisfoundation.ie, and it'll be in the top right-hand corner if they wish to donate. We actually have, we have an event in Cork next month for all sepsis survivors and any grieving families dealt with sepsis, it's in Lordstone Park Hotel in Cork, so if they want to reach out to myself or through the social media pages they can, or if they want to email it, it's info at www.sepsisfoundation.ie. Perfect. Well, I'm sure they'll find that all on www.sepsisfoundation.ie, the website, anyway. James, as I said, I'm sorry, I have to leave it there because time's running out, but thank you very, very much for joining us and telling us about it. It's a dreadful illness, and I'm so sorry to hear about your sister, and of course all the other people who have suffered. But thank you very, very much for joining us this morning. No problem. Thanks very much, Marion, for your time, and have a good day. Thank you. You too. Thank you. Bye-bye. Every time a certain man is standing next to me, a flash comes to my face, and my pulse begins to race. It goes boom-booty-boom-booty-boom-booty-boom-booty-boom-booty-boom-booty-boom-boom-boom-boom. Boom-booty-boom-booty-boom-booty-boom. Well, goodness gracious me!