Sepsis is your body’s overactive and extreme response to an infection. It happens when an infection you already have triggers a chain reaction throughout your body.
So, can an infected wound cause it? The short answer: anyone with an infection could get sepsis.
Sepsis is a life-threatening medical emergency. Symptoms can include rapid breathing and heart rate, shortness of breath, confusion or disorientation, extreme pain or discomfort, fever, shivering, or feeling very cold, and clammy or sweaty skin.
Notice what is and isn’t on that list. These are symptoms of the whole body, not descriptions of how a wound looks. A wound infection is checked by looking at the wound; sepsis is recognized by how the person is.
Timing matters. It’s important to get medical care right away if you think you might have sepsis, and it is very important to get treatment right away.
Some people are at higher risk, including adults aged 65 and older, people with chronic conditions such as diabetes or kidney disease, people with weakened immune systems, pregnant women, and children under one year old.