(uplifting music)
- Hello, everyone
and welcome to The Wrap.
Brought to you by Michigan Medicine Headlines.
I'm Dan Ellman with the Department of Communication.
- And I'm Batman to Dan's Robin,
Hunter Mitchell.
Today, we're going to be honoring Sepsis Awareness Month
by taking a closer look at the condition
and what team members at Michigan Medicine can do
to stop sepsis before it harms patients.
- Now, before we get into that,
be sure you take some time to get caught up on any episode
of the wrap you may have missed.
You can find the shows on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play,
or any other podcast hosting platform.
Video versions of each episode are also published
on the Michigan Medicine YouTube Channel,
and as part of the Headlines weekend review.
- All right, on that note,
let's bring in Jessie King and Winnie Wood.
Two members of the team at Michigan Medicine
that is devoted to helping colleagues spot sepsis
and stop sepsis as quickly as possible.
Jessie and Winnie,
thank you so much for joining us today.
- Thank you.
- Now, first,
can you explain in broad terms what sepsis actually is
and how it affects patients?
- Yes, so sepsis in a simple term is when
it's the body's extreme response to infection.
You'll have either a bacterial infection.
It could also be a viral infection like COVID or influenza,
and that's where it all begins.
And the body decides to attack that
and you have this extreme response to it.
- I was going to say,
I explained it to my medical students
as it's an exaggeration of the response to infection
that you get locally.
So if you cut your arm
and you get a little localized infection,
the blood vessels locally dilate.
They become leaky in order to allow the white blood cells
to come in and fight the infection.
So I think of sepsis,
or even severe sepsis septic shock
as this occurring all over the body.
So you're getting vasodilation all over the body,
inflammatory markers,
or inflammatory cytokines flying around.
And this leads to sort of,
as when you said an exaggerated response to this infection.
Ultimately, this can lead to organ dysfunction and death.
- Wow, so Jessie,
I think you kind of touched on this,
but maybe if you could expand on this,
why is it so essential that sepsis is spotted
as early as possible?
- So I think the challenge with sepsis is that
there was no one test for sepsis.
So unlike a heart attack or a stroke,
I can't do one or two different tests
that will tell me the patient ascending.
So it's really, really crucial
to have a high suspicion for infection and for sepsis.
And the reason being is that time is of the essence.
For every hour,
that appropriate antibiotics are delayed
that increases your mortality risk by about 8%.
And so the sooner we intervene
with these abnormal inflammatory cascades,
the better the patient will do,
and the more successful we'll be in treating that patient.
- So intervening,
what are some of those symptoms or signs
that faculty and staff can look for in patients
in order to intervene
and make sure that sepsis is treated as quickly as possible?
- Well, some of the things that we look for are
altered mental status or confusion,
a fast respiratory rate,
or people having sometimes shortness of breath,
also decreased urine output.
We also look for, especially with children,
all of a sudden they're very lethargic
because it can affect adults and children.
So it's everyone is at risk for sepsis.
- So what can team members do
if they suspect sepsis in one of their patients?
- Well, one of the things we ask nurses to do is
if they suspect sepsis immediately notify
the health care provider.
And that's whether it's a pediatric team or an adult team,
because time of all is of essence,
like Jessie said.
We need to intervene very quickly,
that could be with fluids, antibiotics.
There's also labs and other tests that we run,
but we wanna intervene as soon as possible.
- Now, when I was preparing for this interview
and also for the Sepsis Awareness Month story
that recently ran and headlines,
I came across some pretty shocking data about sepsis
and the fact that it's the leading cause
of death in U.S. Hospitals.
Are there any other sort of surprising facts out there?
And what else do you think is important
for our listeners to know about sepsis?
- (chuckles) I have a whole list
(Dan laughs) of fascinating sepsis facts.
So you talk about mortality in the United States.
What that works out to be is someone dies
of sepsis every two minutes
and about 80% of those are actually preventable.
By really recognizing and treating as soon as possible.
At U of M or Michigan medicine,
it's the most common discharged diagnosis.
As a group or as a population has the highest
readmission rate.
And so there's a lot of associated co-morbidities,
and problems that patients have,
even if they survive their sepsis event.
So there's something known as post-sepsis syndrome.
And it's estimated that somewhere
between 60 and 70% of patients,
who survived their sepsis event have some
of the symptoms of post-sepsis syndrome.
And 30 to 40% of our older adults never get back
to their pre-sepsis functional status.
- These things like Jessie said
that's important about our post-sepsis syndrome,
things like insomnia, chronic pain, organ dysfunction,
and long-term organ dysfunction are also things
that are seen.
And our readmission rates,
those patients especially if they ended up in the ICU
and our older patients are readmitted more frequently.
So that's part of also one of the things
why we wanna intervene quickly, catch it early and treat it.
- I was going to say the psychological aspects also
can be pretty devastating.
I think post-sepsis patients
not only just have a shortened life expectancy in general,
but they have up to 40% increased risk of suicide.
- Thank you so much Jessie and Winnie for providing
this information during Sepsis Awareness Month.
If you want to learn more about sepsis
and what you can do to prevent it.
Go to mmheadlines.org.
That's M-M headlines.org.
- All right,
now Winnie work isn't quite done yet.
When you drew the short straw
and will be participating in the lightening round.
Where we ask you four quick fire questions,
you ready to go?
- I'm ready.
- All right,
the first question is if you could travel anywhere
in the world,
where would it be?
- Portugal.
- You were very quick and had that answer ready.
We've already mentioned that September is
Sepsis Awareness Month.
Now it's totally unrelated,
but it's also Classical Music Month.
What is your favorite kind of music to listen to?
- I actually like classical music.
- Do you have a favorite composer?
- I would say probably Beethoven. I like a lot of his.
- Nice
- I played piano when I was younger.
- Awesome. - Nice.
All right,
well so do you have any unique hobbies
that your coworkers may not know about?
- Well, since COVID,
I've picked up putting puzzles together.
(group laughs)
- So have I. It's amazing.
(group laughs)
- It is. - Yeah. Yeah.
A minimum 1,500 pieces is maximum.
So far, it's been 3,000 pieces, but.
- Wow, that's impressive. (Dan laughs)
I've been sticking with the thousand pieces.
- It's all good. I won't judge.
I won't judge.
All right,
what are you most looking forward to doing this fall?
- Well, probably getting together
with a couple of family members.
We've all been vaccinated, everyone.
We haven't really seen each other in person.
Last year,
we did Thanksgiving via Zoom.
So this year one of my cousins,
we're going to try the two of us get together.
- Nice. Well, that's it.
Well done, Winnie.
Thank you so much for being here
and sharing your knowledge about sepsis.
Once again,
if you wanna learn more about sepsis,
go to mmheadlines.org.
That's M-M headlines.org.
- And while you're there,
you can check the other featured stories
from this abbreviated week,
which included the story of two patients
who have visited Michigan Medicine 35 times.
The Geltner's go on to share their recommendations
for how you can provide an exceptional patient experience.
Find that story and much more at mmheadlines.org.
- All right, Dan.
Now, last week of course,
college football season kicked off
and the NFL follows this upcoming weekend.
I know you're a big sports nut.
Can you tell me what is your favorite sport?
And is there one single sporting event
you've been to that stands out?
- Yeah, so, I mean, I love college football.
It's near the top,
but actually I like baseball more.
And so does always been my whole life,
a diehard Tigers fan.
So the number one sporting event that stands out for me,
that I've been to,
I actually got to go to one of the games
in the World Series back in 2006.
When the Tigers were hosting the Cardinals
and it happened to be the only game
of the world series that they won.
So I like to think of myself as the good luck charm.
They lost the four games I had to watch on TV.
They won the one game I went to.
So any World Series game moving forward,
I feel like I should get free tickets to Comerica Park.
So I'm just putting that out there.
And if anyone who works with the Tigers is listening,
I'm available for free tickets
to any potential World Series games.
Now, how about you? - Okay.
- Are you into sports or attending sporting events?
- Well, so yeah, I like it.
I haven't been to a whole lot.
Last weekend was my first Michigan game ever
and I went with you.
And so thank you again. - Indeed.
(Dan laughs)
And they won too.
So you are a good luck charm.
I think, but yeah.
- Right, right.
Well, no one see it.
And if they lost,
you wouldn't be invited back to say that.
- (laughs) That would be exactly.
But yeah, no, I like college football.
My brothers are super into MLS though.
So that's kinda something like this year,
I wanna get more into soccer.
- Nice
- and my father-in-law's into the Tigers baseball
and all that stuff.
So I have lots of games to go to still, but yeah.
- Yes, you do. - Yes.
- Outstanding. All right.
Well, it's time for the weekly trivia contest.
Last week, we asked listeners.
The ongoing food drive at NCRC runs through which date?
The answer is September 26th.
You still have plenty of time to give some food,
or funds to benefit food gatherers.
Brian Wu, you've done it again.
Sending in the correct answer.
Congratulations, Brian.
Now, for this week's question,
here's Hunter.
- This week's question is how many patients
develop sepsis in the U.S. each year?
Once again,
how many patients develop sepsis in the U.S. each year?
You can find that answer in this week's headline story.
And once you know it,
send it to headlines@med.umich.edu
for the chance to win a prize.
- That's all the time we have for this week.
Winnie and Jessie thank you so much for joining us
(cheerful music)
and thanks as always to all of our listeners,
and viewers for everything you do for patients, families,
and each other.
- We'll see you next week.
(cheerful music)