New sepsis test could save thousands of lives’

coma with sepsis, which had been misdiagnosed.

He had felt unwell with a sore throat that got worse, but was told by a doctor it was a viral infection.

“As the week went on, it got worse and by the Thursday it was really bad. My wife took me to the out-of-hours doctor that night and by this point I was really unwell and could barely move. But I was given an antisickness injection and then I was sent home.”

Hours later he collapsed. He was taken to hospital and suffered two cardiac arrests. His body went into shock with the sepsis and his organs started to shut down.

“No-one mentioned sepsis, although looking back I had all the symptoms,” said Ryan.

“It’s hard to diagnose, so if this test had been around it could have made all the difference to what happened with me.”

The UK Sepsis Trust estimate earlier diagnosis and treatment across the UK would save at least 14,000 lives a year from sepsis.

Dr. Ron Daniels, the trust’s chief executive officer, said, “Any kind of test that enables us to identify sepsis earlier, before symptoms even present themselves, could help save even more lives and bring us closer to our goal of ending preventable deaths from sepsis.

“Systems like this are so important as, with every hour before the right antibiotics are administered, risk of death increases.

“No test is perfect in the identification of sepsis, so it’s crucial we continue to educate clinicians to think sepsis in order to prompt them to use such tests.”