Yesterday, on Monday, September 30th, 2019, World Sepsis Day Supporters from all around the globe came together at ESICM LIVES 2019 for a World Sepsis Day Supporter Meeting.

Konrad Reinhart, Christiane Hartog, Adam Linder, Vida Hamilton, Hiroki Saito, Necmettin Unal, and Marvin Zick all held presentations, which you can view and download below. Topics were the strategy of the GSA for 2019 and 2020, the European Sepsis Alliance and its Working Groups, a look back on World Sepsis Day, and recent achievements in the fight against sepsis in Japan, Ireland, and Turkey.

Our next World Sepsis Day Supporter Meeting will take place on October 16th at the World Congress of Intensive Care in Melbourne, Australia.

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GSA Achievements and Strategy for 2019/2020 - Konrad Reinhart

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European Sepsis Alliance - Working Group Patients and Family Involvement - Christiane Hartog

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Irish National Sepsis Programme Update 2019 - Vida Hamilton

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Strategies to Fight Sepsis in Turkey - Necmettin Unal

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Sepsis-Related Activities in Japan and the Japanese Sepsis Alliance - Hiroki Saito

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Report on 2019 World Sepsis Day - Marvin Zick

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Update September 30th, 2019: We have extended the deadline for uploads to Wednesday, October 9th, 2019. Please upload your event soon.

Original post, September 14th, 2019: Yesterday, September 13th, was World Sepsis Day. Countless events all over the world raised awareness for sepsis, the most preventable cause of death worldwide - thank you so much for participating.

Like in the previous years, we will summarize all events on the 2019 WSD Event Poster - please upload your event now, it takes less than a minute. The form closes on September 30th, please upload your event before that date.

Please note that you can only upload one picture per event (the poster gets too crowded otherwise) – please choose the best/the most representative one.

Since the poster will eventually be printed, we require the picture to be of a certain quality. If you get an error message saying the picture is too small, please double-check that you are uploading the original file without having accidentally compressed it. Compressing can happen when sending pictures through messengers, such as WhatsApp. In such a case, please get the original file from the person who took the picture, or ask that person to upload the picture directly. Uploads from mobile are possible.

Please use only the provided form to submit your events - we can’t use pictures that are emailed to us or sent through social media.

We plan to complete the poster by November, and we will make it available for download, as well as sent out printed copies, which you will be able to order free of charge as soon as the poster is completed.

Please point your colleagues and friends to our website to submit their events, especially if you know that they did an event for World Sepsis Day – thanks so much.

If you adhered to the instructions above and have problems, or for any questions, please contact us.

In June, we announced the winners of the 2019 Global Sepsis Awards. In addition to the five winners, nine other entities were commended for their valuable contribution in the global fight against sepsis.

Over the coming months, we will give both the 2019 GSA Award Winners as well as the activities and initiatives by the entities that were commended the possibility to share their projects and initiatives in more detail on our websites, and after our colleagues from Italy in June and the project “Stop Sepsis in Croatia” in July, we would like to introduce you the ‘6th Annual Jeff Davis Sepsis Challenge 5K’ today.

The 6th Annual Jeff Davis Sepsis Challenge 5K

The 6th Annual Jeff Davis Sepsis Challenge 5K was held on June 29th, 2019 at Garfield Park in Indianapolis, Indiana. This was after 4 successful years in Colorado and 1 successful year in Illinois. The 5K had about 60 participants and raised about $2700 for Sepsis Alliance. We shared Jeff’s story,  Josslyn’s story, and Jonathin’s story. Josslyn’s family worked tirelessly to recently pass mandatory sepsis protocols, “Josslyn’s Law”, in the state of Indiana. They went into effect July 1. All together Lisa Bartlett has raised about $25,000 for Sepsis Alliance and was named a 2016 Sepsis Hero.

Lisa was recently on News 6 in Indianapolis and on the radio at HI-99 in Terre Haute, Indiana. She is still pursuing “Jeff’s Law” and has now focused her efforts in the state of Missouri. Jill Kogan Blake, 2018 Sepsis Hero, put 4 billboards up of Jeff in the San Francisco Bay Area. These are posted with a quiz teaching the public how much they really know about sepsis. Lisa put one billboard up in Southern Indiana, and one up by Ft. Campbell Army post in Tennessee. Jeff was a veteran.

As soon as the years 5K is over, she starts planning the next one. She is also an Advisory board member for Sepsis Alliance. Lisa will continue to work raising sepsis awareness around the globe until everybody in the US knows about sepsis.

Most recently, Lisa has started a petition to establish mandatory sepsis protocols in all healthcare facilities and declare September National Sepsis Awareness Month, for which she needs 100,000 signatures by October 27th.

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The Global Sepsis Awards, which are sponsored by the Erin Kay Flatley Memorial Foundation, honor outstanding efforts to increase sepsis awareness and raise the quality of sepsis prevention and management.

The awards are granted in three categories, namely governments and healthcare authorities, non-governmental organizations, patient advocate or healthcare provider groups, and individuals, consistent with the aims of the World Sepsis Declaration and the World Sepsis Day Movement.

Winners in category II and III will receive $2,500 prize money each. Applications and nominations for the 2020 GSA Awards open in January 2020 and close on March 31st, 2020.

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Our next WSD Supporter Meeting is less than a week away - it takes place on September 30th, 2019 at ESICM LIVES 2019 in Berlin. If you are at ESICM LIVES in Berlin, we encourage you to participate – we are looking forward to connecting with you and hearing your ideas and suggestions to continue to raise awareness for sepsis worldwide.

Main topics will be the collaboration with the WHO to roll out the demands of the Resolution on Sepsis, an update on the establishment of regional sepsis alliances, World Sepsis Day, and more. The agenda is available below.

• Monday, September 30th, 2019

• 12:15 to 14:00h (lunch break of ESICM LIVES 2019)

• Meeting Room: M2, Level 3 of the City Cube

• Snacks will be provided

• Participation is free of charge and open to everyone

Due to an expiring license, our World Sepsis Day Store is no longer available as of today, September 24th, 2019. Please take a look at our toolkit section for lots of material and resources in many languages. If you need physical material, such as T-Shirts, lanyards, or badges, please create them yourself with a local partner - you may use our logo (available to download in the toolkit section as well).

We plan to open a new store with new items in time for World Sepsis Day next year. If you have know-how in building an online store which combines worldwide shipping, a seamless payment process, and a great customer experience and want to help, please contact us.

I was the girl terrified of hospitals. It's ironic that; it was there, I faced the biggest fight of my life, met my true heroes and in nearly losing my tongue, gained a whole new voice and cause for something I previously knew nothing about. Every day, I am so grateful to the doctors and nurses for my life. Giving back to the hospital and raising awareness about sepsis and sepsis survivors has become my mission. This is my story of sepsis and my second chance at life.

At 23, after a quiet Saturday night dinner with a friend, following a ‘common cold’; I was home alone and thought I had bitten my tongue. Tired, I lay on my bed, icing my tongue. Little did I know, this slight pain and fatigue would be the first clue to something much more sinister. Less than an hour later, my tongue had swelled, started to block my airway and left me speechless. I’d heard of sepsis but didn’t know what it was and didn’t think it would happen to me.

Home alone, unable to speak with shallow breath - I texted photos of my tongue to people I knew, trying to get answers. Thankfully, my aunt replied and that reply saved my life, as I was running out of energy and eyes closing. We suspected anaphylaxis; she bundled me into the car and raced me to the local hospital.

“45 minutes and you’ll be out”. That’s what we were told by the kind doctors at the hospital, who too, thought it was anaphylaxis. I don’t blame them - all symptoms pointed to this. They gave me two adrenaline shots and a steroid...but it had the opposite effect. My blood pressure completely dropped, my breathing worsened, and I kept passing out, with a rash rapidly spreading over my body. That “45 minutes” turned into an emergency ambulance transfer, induced coma for 9 days and life-saving surgery.

The local hospital tried everything they could, but hadn’t seen this before and made the call for an emergency ambulance transfer to a bigger hospital, with the possibility of an ambulance tracheostomy. Because of my condition, I couldn’t have anyone but doctors in the ambulance with me. The medics were so kind, but I was so scared... It's a scary feeling being strapped in and unable to breathe.

When I arrived at the bigger hospital, there were nearly 20 doctors and specialists waiting. They transferred me to the Intensive Care Unit, where they put me in an induced coma, paralyzed me, and put me on life support (ventilator). My family was told to prepare for the worst as I remained a medical mystery, and the doctors raced against time.

How did this happen? I was a healthy 23-year-old walking around and then, I was fighting for my life, tubed, ventilated, and burning inside out. The question plagued us all. I had seen multiple GP’s about a random rash on my face and a doctor about a common cold days before, but none would have guessed this would happen. That’s the reality of sepsis; it can strike anyone at any moment, yet, many of us don’t know until it’s almost too late. Thankfully, my heroes fought hard and saved my life.

Like most sepsis survivors, I rely on what I was told after I awoke. I was comatose for 9 days with up to 100 people working on me and my mystery condition. I had scans, tests, and infectious disease specialists; but kept deteriorating. The rash burnt the top half of my body, my tongue blackened from lack of circulation and there were talks of amputation. The real cause was sepsis, resulting from Ludwig’s Angina and cellulitis. An unknown infected impacted wisdom tooth shown in a CT scan nearly cost me my life! I had no pain, good oral hygiene and no other symptoms, but the infection took over my body and nearly killed me.

The next part was really scary for my family, but the doctors were amazing. The infection swelling started to crush my jugular vein and there was concern for blood flow to my heart and brain. They needed to quickly stop the infection, preserve my blood supply to my heart and brain and my black tongue couldn't be amputated. Thankfully, they saved my life by surgically removing the tooth, inserting neck drains and putting me on heavy dose IV antibiotics.  

After more than a week in a coma, I woke up, started breathing on my own and slowly recovered. I felt like the luckiest person in the world to be alive. Disoriented and scared, under the influence of drugs, I seriously believed what I had thought ‘happened’ was reality. I remember thinking I was stuck in a body I didn’t understand, and I didn’t understand why my brain didn’t work properly or why simple tasks such as sitting up felt so hard. At the same time, I had never felt more grateful to be able to see, hear, and breathe. I was very weak but after a few days, I was walking; the machines and tubes disappeared. I took myself off painkillers and it was explained to me that the scary ‘reality’ was an effect of the drugs. I wish I had known about the Global Sepsis Alliance back then, because I really didn’t understand what was happening and didn’t know anything about sepsis.

I found World Sepsis Day through Facebook. It’s such a great community to share concerns, hear inspiring stories, and support each other. I had so many questions, couldn’t eat, talk properly and didn’t understand why my brain was so foggy or why I’d stop mid-sentence and forget. I love meeting new people and helping make a difference and just recently the community helped us with someone facing sepsis in the critical hours.

I’m so thankful to be here and determined to make a difference in the world, give back to the hospital and change sepsis. It was in that hospital bed that I made the decision I had been given a second chance at life and to wear my scars with pride, so that others feel okay about theirs, too. Never did I think that my story would allow me to reach the thousands of people that we’ve been able to reach, and I am so grateful everyday just to be here to join the fight against sepsis and make an impact. I am honored to be able to share my story through the Alliance and raise awareness for sepsis and World Sepsis Day.

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The article above was written by Caitlin Alsop and is shared here with her explicit consent. The views in the article do not necessarily represent those of the Global Sepsis Alliance. They are not intended or implied to be a substitute for professional medical advice. The whole team here at the GSA and World Sepsis Day wishes to thank Caitlin for sharing her story and for fighting to raise awareness for sepsis.

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We will hold our next WSD Supporter Meeting on October 16th, 2019 at the World Congress of Intensive Care in Melbourne. Main topics will be the collaboration with the WHO to roll out the demands of the Resolution on Sepsis, an update on the establishment of regional sepsis alliances, World Sepsis Day, and more. Please download the preliminary agenda below.

If you are in Melbourne in October, we encourage you to participate – we are looking forward to connecting with you and hearing your ideas and suggestions to continue to raise awareness for sepsis worldwide.

• Wednesday, October 16th, 2019

• 12:30 to 14:00h

• Meeting Room: Hospitality Suite 4

• Snacks will be provided

• Participation is free of charge and open to everyone

We are looking for a
Team Assistant
to become our fourth team member. You will be working part-time (20h a week) at the World Sepsis Day Head Office in Berlin, Germany.

About Us

The Global Sepsis Alliance is an international non-profit charity organization with the mission to provide global leadership to reduce the worldwide burden of sepsis. The GSA is the initiator of World Sepsis Day on September 13 and World Sepsis Congress, a series of free online congresses bringing knowledge about sepsis to all parts of the world, among other initiatives.

The GSA works closely with its over 90 member organizations, patient advocacy groups, professional societies, healthcare authorities, and governments to implement changes on how sepsis is prioritized, diagnosed, and treated all around the world, as laid out by the WHO Resolution on Sepsis.

Tasks

• You assist the team as needs arise – scheduling conference calls, making travel arrangements, preparing documents, making bank transfers, and more

• You support individual projects and preparatory accounting

• You organize team events and think about new concepts and formats

• You are the “good soul” of the team and make sure everybody finds the best conditions

Requirements

• You are a true organizational talent, proactive, and a person you can always rely on

• You have everything at a glance and keep a cool head even in stressful situations

• You can familiarize yourself quickly and easily with new tasks

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills in English (German helpful, but

  not mandatory)

• You like to work independently and do not need constant instructions “from above”,

  but think proactively

• Experience in the field of office management, project management, in the event,

  hotel, or restaurant industry, or as an assistant is an advantage, but not a must. It is more important to us that you bring the right attitude and that you are an organized and positive person.

We offer

• Diversified, exciting challenge in the fast-growing healthcare sector

• Opportunity to collaborate with renowned experts and key opinion leaders who are world-class in their particular area of expertise

• Opportunity to help shape sustainable structures in this young non-profit organization with flat hierarchies

If you can identify yourself with the above requirements, we look forward to receiving your application documents via our website as soon as possible. We ensure absolute discretion. With equal qualifications, severely disabled are preferred.