A COUNTY councillor wants people to become familiar with the symptoms of sepsis after his own personal battle with the condition.
Worcestershire County Councillor Adrian Hardman was diagnosed with the life threatening illness in 2022 after a minor scratch on his right leg led to an infection.
Whilst he was seeking treatment for his initial infection on his leg, Adrian became severely unwell with flu-like symptoms, a high temperature, confusion and a severe lack of energy.
At no point did he think the symptoms could be linked back to the cut he had sustained a few weeks before.
Adrian said: “I’m extremely grateful for my daughter calling in to visit me when she did, and that she insisted on calling for an ambulance.
“Otherwise I wouldn’t be here today to tell my story. I would have carried on resting and trying to recover from what I was certain was flu.
“I just didn’t link or even consider that the bacterial infection in my leg had gone into my bloodstream, or that I had an elevated heart rate and very low blood pressure which is typical of Sepsis.”
Unfortunately, the infection continued to develop, leading Adrian to spend an initial two and a half weeks in Worcestershire Acute Hospital.
Worcestershire County Council’s Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care, and the County Councillor for Bredon Hill is still receiving follow-up treatment today.
Councillor Karen May, Worcestershire County Council’s Cabinet Member with Responsibility for Health & Wellbeing said: ”I have known Adrian for many years, both as a councillor and as a friend, and to see the impact that Sepsis has had and continues to have on his everyday life, makes me even more keen to raise awareness of the conditions and its symptoms.
“Sepsis has been renamed in recent years, it used to be called blood poisoning or septicaemia.
“It’s the way the body responds to an infection. You really can save someone’s life by knowing what to look out for and remembering to ‘Just Ask: could it be sepsis?’
“If you’re concerned about someone, if you spot any of the signs, don’t hesitate, call 999 or go straight to A&E.”
According to the UK Sepsis Trust, in the UK alone, 245,000 people are affected by sepsis every year, with at least 48,000 losing their lives to sepsis related conditions. This is more than breast, bowel and prostate cancer combined.
Locally, here in Worcestershire, the latest data from the Office for National Statistics in 2021 showed that there were 6,834 deaths caused by Sepsis.
There are around 1,100 Sepsis related attendances at A&E in Worcestershire every year.
As a former employee in the agricultural sector, Councillor Hardman is also in full support of the recent awareness campaign the National Farmers Union and the UK Sepsis Trust have carried out.
People in the farming community are more susceptible to sepsis as they are more likely to cut themselves, fall or have a crush injury due to the nature of their work. They also risk a stick injury through using needles to vaccinate animals.
To find out more about Sepsis and the symptoms, please go to About Sepsis | Sepsis Symptoms | The UK Sepsis Trust
For more info about Sepsis from the NHS Symptoms of sepsis – NHS (www.nhs.uk)
Find out more about the risk of Sepsis in the farming community at Sepsis Awareness in the Farming Community | The UK Sepsis Trust.
