Septic Shock: When Your Body Can’t Fight an Infection
Taison Bell, MD, explains sepsis and septic shock
What happens when your body can’t fight an infection and it keeps getting worse? That infection can turn into something called sepsis, or septic shock.
According to Taison Bell, MD, “Septic shock is the result of an infection that’s in the blood stream. These can be infections that come from different sorts of areas. So, in the lungs, it would be called pneumonia, or in the urine, a urinary tract infection.”
Our bodies are often able to fight these, especially with the help of antibiotics. But sometimes the infection gets worse, and the body has an abnormal response to the infection.
Watch Bell explain what happens when an infection turns into sepsis, and how doctors can treat it.
Taison Bell Explains Septic Shock
Septic shock is the result of an infection that’s in the bloodstream. These can be infections that come from different sorts of areas. So, in the lungs, it would be called a pneumonia, or in the urine, a urinary tract infection. And oftentimes, when we get these infections, our bodies are able to fight them off, and especially if we can get antibiotics and other therapies, it can kind of turn the course. But sometimes the infection gets worse, and the shock happens when the body has an abnormal, exaggerated response to the infection. And this can lead to a host of downstream complications that are primarily related to the inability of the body to deliver oxygenated blood to your vital organs, and when that happens, the organs can start to shut down, or go into organ failure. And the key to treating this is to give antibiotics early, effective antibiotics, to give intravenous fluids to help support blood flow to the organs, and try to support all the organ function that the patient needs.
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