Patient Died Of Sepsis After Being Sent Home From A&E At Milton Keynes Hospital

The BBC has reported this week that a father-of-two died of sepsis three days after being sent home from Milton Keynes Hospital A&E.

The Inquest into the man’s death heard that he had been sent home from Milton Keynes University Hospital with antibiotics for a suspected urinary tract infection. Just days later, he suffered a cardiac arrest caused by a perforated bowel and sepsis.

It was found at Inquest that the doctor who saw and assessed the patient in A&E did not read the Urgent Care Centre communication that was provided to them and did not record important information in the clinical note.

Senior Coroner for Milton Keynes, Dr Sean Cummings, said that the death was avoidable. He now intends to issue a prevention of future deaths report as a result of this case.

Unfortunately, this is not the first time that the Coroner has had to issue a Future Deaths warning to Milton Keynes Hospital over a similar incident. In 2021, the Coroner issued a Regulation 28 Preventing Future Deaths warning to the hospital following the death of another patient after sepsis guidance was not followed by doctors.

Incredibly sad stories of outcomes like this for patients really highlight how serious sepsis is and the importance of its correct and prompt diagnosis.

What is Sepsis?

Sepsis is the immune system’s overreaction to an infection or injury. Whilst our immune system normally fights infections, sometimes it attacks the body’s own organs and tissues. This is sepsis.

Symptoms

It is important to be aware that sepsis can initially look like flu, a chest infection, or gastroenteritis. There is no one sign to look out for and the symptoms can be different for adults and children.

The signs to look out for with sepsis in adults are:

The signs to look out for in children are if a child:

The Sepsis Six care bundle

UK Sepsis Trust developed the ‘Sepsis Six’ care bundle.

This is a set of tasks that are to be started within one hour by non-specialist practitioners on the frontline. This includes oxygen, cultures, antibiotics, lactate measurement, and urine output monitoring.

The Sepsis Six care bundle has been shown to reduce the risk of death by 46.6% when delivered to patients with sepsis within one hour.

The importance of prompt diagnosis

Sepsis is a life-threatening emergency and it is vital that it is diagnosed and treated quickly.

The UK Sepsis Trust says that patients will have a significantly increased chance of survival if sepsis is diagnosed correctly and treated within an hour of symptoms being detected.

With early diagnosis, sepsis can be treated with antibiotics.

However, if not treated early, sepsis can turn into septic shock and cause organs to fail. Statistics show that five people die with sepsis every hour in the UK.

Sometimes, medical negligence can result in missed or delayed diagnosis of sepsis. As outlined above, if a diagnosis is delayed at all, it could result in catastrophic consequences.