Caitlin Alsop At age 23 she began to develop a rash on her face. It continued for several months and was the only illness she had – otherwise she was a “normal, healthy” woman in her early 20s.
But these rashes were a sign that something deadly was growing inside his body.
“I went to a few doctors but I didn't think I had anything wrong and then I started to get some flu-like symptoms,” Alsop told news.com.au.
She said she was having a fever, sore throat and ear pain, and her doctor thought she just had the flu and needed to rest, so she did.
Eventually, Alsop began to feel better and went to dinner with a friend. But, while eating, she felt as if she had bitten her tongue. A few hours later, her tongue was swollen and she began to drool.
She was having trouble breathing and talking, so she messaged her family and they all agreed that she was probably having some sort of allergic reaction. However, when she was unable to swallow the antihistamines, she was rushed straight to the hospital.
Within 45 minutes, doctors also suspected that she had anaphylaxis and gave her two injections of adrenaline. But, the situation worsened and she started fainting and a severe blue and red rash appeared on the upper half of her body.
Alsop was then transferred to the Gold Coast University Hospital, where he became known as a “medical mystery”. His tongue began to turn black and there was talk of a tracheostomy and necrotizing fasciitis.
Doctors eventually performed endotracheal intubation and transferred him to the intensive care unit. His skin was burning from the inside out. An anesthetist suspected he had Ludwig's angina, a life-threatening cellulitis of the soft tissues that include the floor of the mouth and neck.
This meant a CT scan was carried out and eventually the cause of his problem was discovered. His wisdom tooth had become impacted and infected and it almost killed him.
“I had no pain, no symptoms and it almost killed me overnight. It's absolutely crazy,” he said.
“I had no idea the infection could be so serious. Like a lot of young people, I had no idea the infection could cause this. I was walking around and then I was burning from the inside, like a medical mystery, in the ICU.”
Once it opened up, she needed emergency surgery to remove the tooth. Her jugular vein was also getting compressed and so the pressure on it needed to be relieved. She was in a coma for nine days.
“When I woke up I felt like a child, because I was so confused,” Alsop said. “I'd taken some really powerful drugs. I couldn't really eat, couldn't really talk, and it was a very interesting trip.
“But I was so grateful to be alive, to be able to see, to hear, to breathe, I can't describe that feeling.”
For the next few months her wounds remained open and needed to heal. It wasn't until a year later that she realized just how much trouble she had gotten into. Alsop's infection had actually turned into sepsis.
Sepsis is a serious condition that occurs when the body's immune system responds excessively to an infection, resulting in tissue and organ damage.
Alsop said while this information is scary, and not knowing it at the time may have changed his recovery process, it has given him a new path in life.
“I am determined to make sure I leave this world a better place,” he said.
“But you know, it's really scary – and the scariest thing is the amount of people who message me telling me they're worried their loved ones are going through something similar, and they see my story and they want to make sure it doesn't happen to them. “We all have to work together to make sure we prevent the loss of life from sepsis.”
He encouraged people who suspect they have sepsis to go to the hospital and not hesitate to ask if it is sepsis and get it checked out.
Alsop has since made Face sepsis I spoke to GPs and dentists about the project and found that many ordinary Australians don’t know much about it.
Face Sepsis is a simple education programme designed to help recognise the symptoms of sepsis in supportive practices and primary care, because the faster it is treated, the better people's chances of recovery.
Alsop is sharing her story ahead of World Sepsis Day on September 13, where Sepsis Australia A social media campaign is being launched to raise awareness of the disease, which kills 8700 Australians each year.
One in three people with sepsis die, but only 61 per cent of Australians know what it is. Symptoms of sepsis can include fever or chills, muscle pain, not being able to urinate, rapid breathing, confusion or slurred speech, discoloured skin and a rapid heartbeat.
Associate Professor Sanjaya Senanayake, infectious disease physician at Canberra Hospital, said: “Sepsis is a time-critical medical emergency as the risk of death from sepsis increases by 8 per cent with every hour before treatment begins. Knowing the common signs and symptoms will help reduce the risk of preventable death and disability.”
Sepsis Australia’s campaign challenges Australians to take part in the slogan: “I am vulnerable to sepsis and I am vulnerable to sepsis”.
Love Island Australia star Anna McEvoy is one of the Australians lending their support to the sepsis challenge.
In 2023, McAvoy was rushed to hospital with a urinary tract infection, where his condition grew steadily worse after seven days of antibiotics.
“I had a very intense pain on one side of my body that slowly spread to my left side, back and front,” he said at the time.
Eventually, the doctor suspected a kidney stone but the scans didn't show it. Eventually, the pain worsened and she had to be hospitalised. She was eventually discharged but things got worse, she began shivering uncontrollably, her lips turned blue and the pain became “extremely terrible”.
She was eventually diagnosed with a kidney infection that turned into sepsis.
