Sepsis Canada

Cameillia recently lost all four limbs to sepsis. It started as severe back pain while she had the flu, and within a short time it had become a medical emergency.

Sepsis is the body's overreaction to an infection, which can lead to organ failure. One in five people who develop it do not survive, and Sepsis Canada's scientific director, Dr. Fox-Robichaud, suggests that it ranks fourth among all infection-related causes of death in Canada. It is sometimes difficult to recognize sepsis because of the common and often overlapping early signs with many other illnesses.

Despite this, Dr. Fox-Robichaud highlights that asking your doctor if this could be sepsis can prompt the healthcare team to check for something they had not considered. With the new challenges ahead, Cameillia is grateful to have the strong support from her family as she continues her recovery.

See the City News story of Cameilla Ramdass here:

Montreal quadruple amputee speaks out for better sepsis screening What began as severe back pain after recovering from the flu quickly became a medical emergency for the 43-year-old Montrealer.  “I would never leave you guys. I’m sorry you have to go through this,” those were the first words that came out of Cameillia Ramdass mouth after waking up from an i...

Cameillia recently lost all four limbs to sepsis. It started as severe back pain while she had the flu, and within a short time it had become a medical emergency.

Sepsis is the body's overreaction to an infection, which can lead to organ failure. One in five people who develop it do not survive, and Sepsis Canada's scientific director, Dr. Fox-Robichaud, suggests that it ranks fourth among all infection-related causes of death in Canada. It is sometimes difficult to recognize sepsis because of the common and often overlapping early signs with many other illnesses.

Despite this, Dr. Fox-Robichaud highlights that asking your doctor if this could be sepsis can prompt the healthcare team to check for something they had not considered. With the new challenges ahead, Cameillia is grateful to have the strong support from her family as she continues her recovery.

See the City News story of Cameilla Ramdass here:

Montreal quadruple amputee speaks out for better sepsis screening What began as severe back pain after recovering from the flu quickly became a medical emergency for the 43-year-old Montrealer.  “I would never leave you guys. I’m sorry you have to go through this,” those were the first words that came out of Cameillia Ramdass mouth after waking up from an i...

Cameillia recently lost all four limbs to sepsis. It started as severe back pain while she had the flu, and within a short time it had become a medical emergency.

Sepsis is the body's overreaction to an infection, which can lead to organ failure. One in five people who develop it do not survive, and Sepsis Canada's scientific director, Dr. Fox-Robichaud, suggests that it ranks fourth among all infection-related causes of death in Canada. It is sometimes difficult to recognize sepsis because of the common and often overlapping early signs with many other illnesses.

Despite this, Dr. Fox-Robichaud highlights that asking your doctor if this could be sepsis can prompt the healthcare team to check for something they had not considered. Despite the new challenges ahead, Cameillia is grateful to have the strong support from her family as she continues her recovery.

See the City News story of Cameilla Ramdass here:

Montreal quadruple amputee speaks out for better sepsis screening What began as severe back pain after recovering from the flu quickly became a medical emergency for the 43-year-old Montrealer.  “I would never leave you guys. I’m sorry you have to go through this,” those were the first words that came out of Cameillia Ramdass mouth after waking up from an i...

Cameillia recently lost all four limbs to sepsis. It started as severe back pain while she had the flu, and within a short time it had become a medical emergency.

Sepsis is the body's overreaction to an infection, which can lead to organ failure. One in five people who develop it do not survive, and Sepsis Canada's scientific director, Dr. Fox-Robichaud, suggests that it ranks fourth among all infection-related causes of death in Canada. It is sometimes difficult to recognize sepsis because of the common and often overlapping early signs with many other illnesses.

Despite this, Dr. Fox-Robichaud highlights that asking your doctor if this could be sepsis can prompt the healthcare team to check for something they had not considered. Despite the new challenges ahead, Cameillia is grateful to have the strong support from her family as she continues her recovery

See the Global News story of Cameilla Ramdass here:

Montreal quadruple amputee speaks out for better sepsis screening What began as severe back pain after recovering from the flu quickly became a medical emergency for the 43-year-old Montrealer.  “I would never leave you guys. I’m sorry you have to go through this,” those were the first words that came out of Cameillia Ramdass mouth after waking up from an i...

Many pediatric intensive care units throw out unused, unopened supplies wrapped in paper packaging every time a patient is discharged from a room – a practice meant to prevent infections. For just one 15-bed PICU, this wastes more than $62,000 a year, in addition to having a significant environmental footprint. But is it necessary? Severson et al., funded by a Sepsis Canada trainee grant, swabbed 840 unused supply items from 70 bedside carts at the Stollery Children's Hospital, testing for dangerous bacteria and respiratory viruses.

No harmful bacterial pathogens were found, and viral material showed up on only about 2% of swabs, mostly at very low levels. Contamination was far lower than on common hospital surfaces like bed rails and stethoscopes. The authors concluded the risk of these supplies spreading infection is very low, opening a real opportunity to cut costs and waste while keeping young patients safe.

Read the full publication here:

PATHogen PREValence on paper-packaged supplies in PICU bedside supply carts: the PATH-PREV study | Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology | Cambridge Core PATHogen PREValence on paper-packaged supplies in PICU bedside supply carts: the PATH-PREV study

An international panel of 68 experts has released updated guidelines (2026) for managing sepsis and septic shock in pediatric cases.

Highlights of the Surviving Sepsis Campaign International Guidelines for the Management of Sepsis and Septic Shock in Children 2026 include:

✅ Start broad-spectrum antibiotics as soon as sepsis is recognized, ideally within 1 hour for septic shock. This is one of the most consistently supported interventions, with clear evidence that delays directly increase mortality.

✅ When fluids are not enough to restore blood pressure, norepinephrine is preferred over other agents due to stronger evidence for effectiveness and a safer side-effect profile.

✅ Identify and eliminate the source of infection (e.g., drainage of an abscess, removal of infected devices) as early as possible. This is a cornerstone of treatment with strong evidence linking delays to worse outcomes.

✅ In patients with sepsis-induced respiratory failure, use low tidal volume ventilation (~6 mL/kg). This strategy is backed by high-quality evidence showing a significant reduction in mortality.

Sepsis remains one of the leading causes of death in children worldwide. These guidelines help standardize care across hospitals and countries, giving clinicians a clearer, evidence-based roadmap.

Full guidelines:

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00134-026-08360-2

How can we reduce sepsis mortality, overcome barriers, and encourage sepsis protocol initiation in emergency settings?

Most patients experiencing septic shock present to healthcare through emergency departments (EDs). However, preventable deaths still occur in the ED.

Sepsis Canada's Project 7 surveyed over 500 emergency staff and conducted 15 interviews to understand why these preventable deaths still occur. Distilling the information from the surveys and interviews, the following barriers to successful protocol implementation were identified:

1. Access block where patients were unable to gain access to hospital beds due to limited capacity.

2. Recognizing sepsis and its severity is limited in the general public, which leads to delayed emergency treatment.

3. Resource constraints, including physical and human resource issues, laboratory result delays, medical record systems, patient flow, and specific issues related to rural practices

4. Leveraging scopes of practice, such as enabling paramedics and nurses to initiate sepsis-specific care, was severely lacking

5. Recognition of sepsis by healthcare providers, noting the lack of accurate point-of-care screening tools and delayed laboratory results.

6. Communication and interpersonal conflict among emergency healthcare professionals, which includes a lack of trust between hospital staff and ambulance paramedics

This study concludes that overcoming these barriers will require public awareness campaigns, leveraging technology to improve recognition and resource limitations, efforts to overcome access barriers, enabling practitioners to perform at the top of their scope, and establishing care pathways and expert teams to care for patients with sepsis.

Click here to read the full publication:

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s43678-026-01119-0

The ramifications for patients who survive sepsis extend well beyond the day of hospital discharge. For many, leaving the ICU is just the beginning of a second crisis. Sepsis survivors routinely face a complex web of long-term challenges, including:

• Physical & Physiological: Chronic illness, physical disability, chronic organ dysfunction, and elevated risks for cardiovascular events.

• Cognitive & Psychological: Cognitive impairment alongside severe psychological and psychosocial disorders.

These challenges cause immense personal and economic hardship for families and also place a heavy burden on our healthcare systems through soaring costs, frequent re-hospitalizations, and high post-discharge mortality rates.

To improve long-term outcomes, our care frameworks must evolve. A new scoping review by Hanning et al. maps out the current landscape of post-sepsis recovery protocols, analyzing 13 key articles on post-discharge interventions.

🔗 Read the full study here:

Bridging the Gap in Sepsis Recovery: A Scoping Review of Post-Discharge Care Interventions - Rheya Hanning, Layla Van Meggelen, Jordan Soares, Alison Fox-Robichaud, Robin Enns, Michael McGillion, Carly Whitmore, , on behalf of Sepsis Canada, on... Background Sepsis affects an estimated 166 million people annually. Short-term survival has been the primary focus of research to date, yet individuals who surv...