Young mum loses her arms and legs to a killer illness that’s slaying 6,400 Aussie a year

IT starts out feeling like the flu. So it’ll be gone in a few days, right? In the case of this blood infection, every hour you delay treatment increases the chance of dying by 8 per cent.

Korina Valentine, and her children Hayden and Amelia and husband Daniel. She lost her arms and legs due to a sepsis infection.

IT’S the little recognised disease that cost new mum Korina Valentine two arms, two legs and a nose when a timely dose of antibiotics could have stopped it fast.

Sepsis kills more people than prostate and breast cancer combined but most of the 30,000 Australians who contract the disease each year don’t recognise the symptoms.

Nor do their doctors.

Many people think they have the flu and miss out on the timely medical help that could save their lives.

Antibiotics can treat the infection if it is caught early but over 6400 people a year die because they get treatment too late. Many who survive lose limbs and suffer other health problems.

Korina Valentine had given birth to her second child Ameila just five months before a sepsis infection claimed her arms and legs. Pic supplied

In April last year, a week before she turned 28, Korina Valentine went to her doctor with fever, diarrhoea and vomiting.

She was given a shot of anti- nausea drug Maxolon and sent home but her condition deteriorated and 15 hours later she went to Bowral Hospital with critically low blood pressure.

A heart attack and a purple rash appeared and the blood infection attacking her body was finally diagnosed at Campbelltown Hospital where she was put into an induced coma and given antibiotics.

However, her body had started to shut down as the infection stopped blood flowing to her organs and arms and legs causing tissue death and she had to have both arms and legs amputated.

“We know that every hour’s delay in administering antibiotics increases the risk of death by eight per cent,” says Professor Simon Finfer, of The George Institute for Global Health.

“It was 15 hours after seeing the GP before we went to the hospital and there is always the question of whether the amputations would be necessary if we had got to hospital earlier,” says Korina’s husband Daniel.

Korina Valentine was in hospital for ten and a half months as a result of her sepsis infection. Pic supplied

Korina spent ten months in four different hospitals as she fought the disease and doctors were not confident she could survive.

The mother of a new five month old baby Amelia and a three year old Hayden surprised everyone.

“She proved the doctors wrong, she’s a fighter,” says Daniel.

“I saw a GP and was taken to four hospitals and the delay in diagnosing sepsis has cost us dearly. Lifesaving antibiotics need to be given immediately to those in need and that can only be done if there is more awareness of sepsis both by the public and health professionals,” Korina says.

The local community have raised funds to help Korina’s family buy a wheelchair, a special car and prosthetics and the family says it’s been overwhelmed by the support.

The life threatening illness affects more than 30,000 Australians every year.

Very few Australians know the key warning signs including fever and high heart rate.

Professor Simon Finfer, of The George Institute for Global Health, says it is time sepsis was put at the top of the health agenda.

The local community has raised funds to help Korina Valentine purchase a wheelchair, a special car and prosthetics.

“Despite advances in modern medicine like vaccines, antibiotics, and acute care, sepsis takes the lives of almost one in three people that contract it. But, most Australians don’t even know what sepsis is, let alone what to look out for.” he said.

There is no specific test for sepsis however fever and chills, a heart rate over 90 beats per minute, swelling, confusion, failure to pass urine and low blood pressure are signs.

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A “Sepsis Kills” campaign rolled out in NSW hospital emergency departments has cut death rates, it aims to get patients with signs of the illness hooked up to intravenous antibiotics within one hour of arriving at hospital.

Doctors are urged not to wait for test results but to treat the patients while testing is underway, Professor Finfer said.

Professor Finfer, who heads the Australian Sepsis Network (ASN), says there was a need for a national awareness campaign to increase public recognition of sepsis and to speed recognition and treatment of sepsis by healthcare workers.

Family and friends of Korina Valentine have set up the Reaching4Korina charity to help provide major equipment such as wheel chairs, modified vehicles and prosthetics for those affected by sepsis and also raise awareness.

Read more at the reaching4kornia website.