Key Points:
- Sepsis is a major concern in Australia, and there is a growing rate of antibiotic resistance.
- 55,000 Australians develop sepsis every year, with 8,000 people dying from complications of the disease.
- Researchers have found that mutations in certain types of E.coli may play a role in developing sepsis.
Danielle Penman could have lost her life days after giving birth to her baby girl as a deadly sepsis reaction overwhelmed her body.
Penman had an episiotomy after an induced labour but hours after being stitched up, her pain was excruciating.
During surgery hours later, doctors found massive bruising.
Days after the surgery she developed symptoms of sepsis, such as a fever, inability to pass urine and pain.
Sepsis is the body's improper reaction to an infection and is a life-threatening medical emergency.
Penham says her concerns about not passing urine were dismissed and that questions or concerns about her developing sepsis were never asked.
Sepsis can become fatal if untreated. In severe cases, patients who develop sepsis may need to have limbs amputated. Source: AAP
Source of infection never identified
Penman was sent home but the same day she had a massive bleed and was taken back to hospital.
She told a doctor she was unable to pass urine and he found 750ml of urine trapped in her bladder.
"I said 'please take my temperature again because I know that I've got some sort of infection'," she told the Australian Associated Press.
Doctors discovered she had a high temperature and that she was experiencing sepsis.
"It's lucky that I had the bleed and went back to the hospital and they caught the sepsis before anything bad happened."
The source of her sepsis was never identified.
Penman is among the 55,000 Australians who develop sepsis every year, with 8,000 people dying from complications of the disease.
Not only can it be deadly but survivors can lose limbs and suffer post-traumatic stress disorder.
New research sparks fresh hope
Sepsis can be caused by E.coli bacteria that spreads through the body.
E.coli is a type of bacteria that can exist harmlessly in the body, however, other types of E.coli can cause serious disease.
"Bad" E.coli has a mutation where it does not develop cellulose, researchers from the University of Queensland found.
Cellulose acts like a cloak for bacteria, making it harmless to the body.
Without the cloak of cellulose, the harmful factors of E.coli are exposed which then stimulate the immune response of inflammation in the body, breaking down the intestinal wall to travel into the bloodstream and spreading infection.
By finding the difference between the good and bad bacteria in our gut, researchers hope it will lead to more targeted antibiotics and strengthen the fight against antibiotic resistance.
Research from the University of Queensland has found that mutations in E.coli bacteria, which causes the bacteria to have no cellulose may play a role in why some kinds of E. coli may cause sepsis. Credit: BSIP/Universal Images Group
Sepsis a major concern
"We've got more understanding of a mechanism that we can disrupt or we can target with our antibiotics, and try and make sure that we're limiting the effect of antibiotics against bad bacteria as opposed [to] the bacteria doing good in our bodies," University of Queensland researcher Professor Mark Schembri said.
Schembri said sepsis was a major concern in Australia particularly the growing rate of antibiotic resistance to the disease.
"The number of deaths from these infections is rising and will continue to arise unless we do something about it," he said.
Penman welcomed the research breakthrough.
"It's critical work. Because with sepsis if the antibiotics don't work you're gone basically," she said.
