Device helps more accurately detect sepsis while in the hospital

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Former President George H. W. Bush is recovering from a dangerous condition called sepsis, but a new tool could help detect the infection earlier for Lee Health patients.

Sepsis is a potentially life-threatening complication of an infection, according to the Mayo Clinic. Sepsis occurs when chemicals released into the bloodstream to fight the infection trigger inflammatory responses throughout the body. This inflammation can trigger a cascade of changes that can damage multiple organ systems, causing them to fail.

It’s also the leading cause of death and readmission in U.S. hospitals and can start with something as simple as a tooth infection or pneumonia.

Debbie Kerlin just found out her granddaughter, Pazlie Mae, who lives on the West Coast has sepsis, “Devastated, especially to be 3,000 miles away. You just pray.”

Dr. Marilyn Kole with Lee Health said it’s a very difficult diagnosis to make.

Lee Health is using a device to more accurately diagnosis sepsis in the emergency department, where false positive test results from blood can be problematic. The device is called Steripath.

ER physician Aaron Wohl said, “Every time that false positive rate occurs, we have to call that patient. We have to bring them back to the emergency department. Which costs the hospital money, keeps you in the hospital longer, and puts you on antibiotics that you might not even need.

However, since implementing this tool, a team of researchers found an 83 percent reduction in blood culture contamination.

Steripath takes 1.5 ml of blood out of your arm as ‘waste blood’ to help eliminate the possibility of a false positive test result.

“It makes a dirty environment better, because we can’t change the environment of the emergency room,” said Nurse Manager Mary Bell.

And having an accurate diagnosis gets actual sepsis patients like Kerlin’s granddaughter the treatment they need, “Think about if it was your child, your grandchild, or your father or your mother,” Kerlin said.

After receiving treatment, Kerlin’s granddaughter was released with antibiotics and is expected to be okay.

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