Sepsis is one of the most serious medical emergencies, and failure to recognise or treat it promptly is a frequent cause of medical negligence claims. I’ll break this down for you clearly:

What is Sepsis?

Sepsis is the body’s extreme response to infection. It can lead to tissue damage, organ failure, and death if not treated quickly. Because it progresses rapidly, early recognition and treatment are crucial.

Medical Negligence and Sepsis

Negligence arises when healthcare providers fail to act in accordance with accepted medical standards. Common issues in sepsis-related claims include:

1. Failure to Diagnose

• Not recognising early warning signs such as high/low temperature, rapid breathing, confusion, or low blood pressure.
• Dismissing patient/family concerns when deterioration is obvious.

2. Delayed Treatment

• Delay in giving broad-spectrum antibiotics (guidelines recommend within 1 hour of sepsis recognition).
• Delay in administering IV fluids or oxygen.
• Slow escalation to ICU or failure to call senior staff.

3. Mismanagement in Hospital

• Not monitoring vital signs properly.
• Ignoring abnormal test results (e.g., raised white cell count, abnormal lactate).
• Poor communication between departments (A&E, wards, ICU).

4. Post-Discharge Failures

• Sending a patient home without recognising sepsis risk.
• Not arranging follow-up when symptoms persist.

Examples of Sepsis Negligence Cases (Ireland & UK)

Failure to recognise infection after surgery, leading to fatal sepsis.

Child sepsis cases, where fever, rash, and lethargy were misdiagnosed as minor illness, resulting in catastrophic injury.

Maternal sepsis after childbirth, where infection signs were ignored or antibiotics delayed.

(If you’d like, I can pull up specific recent Irish cases involving sepsis and negligence.)

Legal Considerations

To prove negligence, the claimant must show:

1. Duty of care – doctor/hospital owed responsibility.
2. Breach of duty – failure to meet accepted medical standards.
3. Causation – the delay or mismanagement worsened the outcome.
4. Damage – injury, disability, or death resulted.

✅ Practical Lesson:

In sepsis cases, time is everything. Courts often examine exactly when symptoms arose, when medical staff responded, and whether earlier treatment would have prevented deterioration.