Tory MP who survived sepsis calls for greater awareness of condition

A Tory MP has called for greater awareness of sepsis and improved reporting of cases, as he said the condition left him wanting to die.

Mike Wood told Parliament that he had a 10% chance of survival after being admitted to hospital with life-threatening blood poisoning in 2017.

During a Westminster Hall debate on sepsis, the MP for Kingswinford and South Staffordshire pushed the Government to introduce a sepsis register so that the number of cases could be better monitored.

He told MPs: “Consultants told my family I had about a 10% chance of surviving, and if I was to pull through it would almost certainly be with life-changing effects, whether amputations, whether brain damage, or other severe effects.

“Fortunately of course, I was extremely and unbelievably lucky.”

He added: “Although in the United Kingdom the reporting is better than in almost any other country, it is still not consistent. It is still quite possible that it will just be recorded as a multiple organ failure, or a respiratory failure, despite there being a case of sepsis or septic shock.

“And so it is so important, if we are to step up to the challenge of reducing those deaths – which has been said does represent more than the lives lost to breast, bowel and prostate cancers every single year – we need that sepsis register, so that we know how many cases and we can see how those cases progress.

“Because one of the most alarming aspects of sepsis is that it does often go unrecognised until it’s too late.”

Mr Wood added: “I’m all too aware of the signs and the symptoms of sepsis: that slurred speech or confusion, the extreme shivering or muscle pain, passing no urine for a day or more, severe breathless and what’s normally described as ‘it feels like you’re going to die’ – but having been there actually it’s almost more, it feels like you want to die, and the skin that’s mottled, or discoloured.”

Reform UK MP Lee Anderson, who brought forward the debate, said his wife had experienced sepsis twice.

The Ashfield MP said: “My wife, she’s got cystic fibrosis, and she is post-double lung transplant so she’s got all sorts of medical problems as well, and we thought it was maybe rejection of her lungs, or pneumonia, or something like that.

“Managed to get her to the hospital, and it was sepsis, and they told us at the hospital that if you’d have left it any longer she would have died. Simple as that, she would have died, because she’s got other complications, she’s got no immune system etc.

“So last year I think it was, when she had it again, we knew straightaway what it was, the same symptoms, so we got her there pretty sharpish.”

Mr Anderson called for a sepsis campaign which mirrors the awareness that has been raised in recent years of the symptoms of strokes.

He said: “We have a campaign in this country for strokes, we all know the symptoms now of strokes, we have all seen the stroke campaign on TV about the face, can you talk, can you lift your arms, can you keep your arms up, we know all this now.

“I guess what I would like to see is a campaign for sepsis, so families and more importantly our hospitals are fully aware.”

Later in the debate, Reform UK MP James McMurdock also told MPs that his wife had sepsis after the birth of their fourth child.

The MP for South Basildon and East Thurrock said: “I have four young children at home, and after our most recent one my wife began to suffer with some of the symptoms we’ve discussed today.

“And very much like (Mr Wood), tough Brits don’t very easily give in to the hospital, but it just so happened, as fate would have it, we had a meeting that morning with a carer who wanted to check with any women who’d recently had children, pop round, check on the baby, check on her welfare.

“And while both my wife and I were quite adamant that everything would be fine, this skilled professional spotted the symptoms immediately and demanded that we were rushed to hospital.”