~In fond and ever loving memory of my grandfather Louis Fernandes and uncle Constancio Da Costa~
 
I have had two cases of  septicemia (blood poisoning) ,a type of meningococcus infectional related deaths in my family.
The first was that of my grandfather Louis. His was caused by a forced catheter infecting bacteremia into his urinary tract. My uncle , Constancio , suffered from it due to complications arising from kidney failure and chronic cardiac arrest .
In both cases, bacteremia rapidly disposed its toxic componenets to claim the lives of both of them. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that septicemia is the tenth leading cause of death in ICU patients in the United States alone and yet, I had never heard about this disease till it took away my grandfather.
 
Unlike some other diseases, the symptoms for septicemia are simple and visible. Loss of appetite, fever and chills, lethargy, agitation , anxiousness, low blood pressure. But because these symptoms are also such common contributing factors to a range of other illnesses, sometimes to some things as simple as a flu or general weakness, septicemia patients, like my grandfather and uncle (who were already so weak and drug induced to begin with), often go undiagnosed until after an autopsy can cofirm this. Similarly, to most people just like us, someone sick in hospital often has much of the above symptoms and it makes it very difficult, if not nearly impossible to realize the contributing factors of  these warning signs.
 
You may know that fatality rates of septicemia are high - 20%  which varies on age, medical history and how long it took to have the condition diagnosed. However, nurses and doctors monitoring their patients can easily take a number of tests to confirm septicemia in patients -  blood culture, urine culture, CBC, platelet count, fibrinogen levels, CSF culture. Unfortunately in both our cases no one did.
 
My point in explaining all of this is to make people aware of the dangers of this disease that affect so many ICU patients (It accounts for as much as 25% of ICU bed utilization in the United States and has become one of the major causes of ICU deaths WORLDWIDE) .
To put it plain and simple, if you or a family member or friend ever get admitted to ICU, REMEMBER THIS! There is no possible reason to think that you could not  be just another ICU statistic!
 
Everybody deserves the right to know that they are suffering from this disease and given a fair chance to fight it. The key is to being educated, alert and diagonise it in time. Especially with such  diseases that are common and still do not get widespread attention, the need to educate yourself is even more crucial.
 
My grandfather was the humblest, most giving man I know. He had an unbreakable spirit and the most enduring strength throughout his whole life. My uncle was a fighter for life and a champion at it too after surviving several near death experiences due to heart failure.  They both shared a passion for life and an unshakable faith in themselves that carried them as far as they reached. They did not deserve to have their lifes stolen away from a disease we did not know about while they were trying so hard to fight what we were aware of.
 
 
Do not wait for this to steal away a member of your own family. Do not wait to have someone you love end up in ICU till you decide to educate yourself about this because it may be too late.
If you need more information for a loved one or just as a precautionary measure to better inform yourself, join the  Surviving Sepsis Campaign at www.survivingsepsis.org and get informed.
 
We can beat septicemia - stop it killing, get living!
 
Abigail Noronha