One young Queenslander is on a mission to raise awareness of a relatively little-known medical condition in Australia, one which takes the lives of thousands Australians each year.
Its name is sepsis, and it can be deadly.
Responsible for one in five deaths around the world, Sepsis is the body's extreme response to an infection. It can lead to a life-threatening medical emergency, and even death.
Sepsis happens when an infection you already have triggers a chain reaction throughout your body, and Caitlin Alsop from the Gold Coast only knows too well the effects of Sepsis.
What she thought was just a common cold, resulted in her spending nine days in a coma, and being lucky to be alive.
Five years on from her medical emergency, Caitlin travels the country working hard to make people aware of the condition, so that one day they may ask themselves “Could I have sepsis?”
Doing so could save your life.
It is believed that 3 in 4 Australians admit to not knowing a lot about Sepsis, and in sharing her story, Caitlin hopes that those statistics can change.
“I was at work and doing an overnight shift when I felt unwell,” Caitlin said. “So I went home early thinking it wasn’t anything serious.
“The only issue I’d had up until then was a rash that kept coming and going and I just ignored it. I saw my GP and we thought I just had the flu. After I’d had some dinner and I felt like I’d bitten my tongue, it was the same kind of sensation.
“As the weekend wore on I just felt more and more unwell. My tongue had started to swell up and I thought I was having a stroke or something, as I couldn’t breathe or talk properly.”
Eventually Caitlin presented at the Robina Hospital Emergency Department, and after two shots of adrenaline due to her condition, initially it was thought Caitlin had anaphylaxis, a severe allergic reaction. Her symptoms got worse, passing in and out of consciousness, her blood pressure dropped, her tongue was turning black, and her breathing became so hard she was transferred in an ambulance to Gold Coast University Hospital.
“That was the scariest part, overhearing conversations about performing a tracheostomy, where they insert a tube in a hole in your neck so you can breathe, but I had complete faith in the medical team.
“My tongue kept swelling up and my skin was burning.
“That’s what I remember up until that point. It was then I was placed in a medically induced coma, which I came out of nine days later.”
Caitlin’s medical team discovered an infected wisdom tooth, which was the cause of all her issues. The infection was spreading through her body.
Fortunately, she came out of the coma after nine days, and despite still feeling unwell, she was on the road to recovery with a course of antibiotics and rest.
“When you come out of something like that, you can’t describe the feeling of being alive,” Caitlin said. “There are people who don’t wake up from sepsis, and this experience has given me a whole new lease on life.
“I’ve always wanted to help people, and now I spend a lot of my time spreading awareness of sepsis.
“I’ve got a website, I’ve appeared in many newspapers (including the New York Post), and I think that losing 9 days in exchange for the rest of my life is a small price to pay.”
Caitlin’s goal is simply to have Australians aware of what sepsis is, and to possibly just ask themselves the question ‘Could I have sepsis?’
“I am so grateful to the doctors and nurses who looked after me, and this is one simple way I can give back.
“Sepsis is the number one most preventable cause of death in the world, and I wake up every morning thinking ‘How can I make a difference today?’”
Find out more about Sepsis HERE
Read more about Caitlin’s story HERE