The small injury on Beauden’s knee seems harmless, a normal scratch that children regularly get while playing. “Children fall about 500 times a day, so we cleaned the wound, put a plaster on it and went on with the day as normal,” Beauden’s mother, Juliana Baumkirchner, told DailyMail. The family is currently on vacation.
The leading cause of death
They still have no idea that the three-year-old has contracted blood poisoning caused by staphylococci. The actually harmless bacteria, which are part of the normal flora of the skin and mucous membranes, can in rare cases trigger dangerous infections. As a rule, these types of staphylococci enter the body through wounds and into the blood, where sepsis can ultimately be triggered. Pneumonia or inflammation in the abdomen or urinary tract can also lead to sepsis. Small children and infants are particularly susceptible to this, says the Sepsis Foundation. Your immune system is not yet fully developed and is therefore weakened.
Sepsis, colloquially known as “blood poisoning”, is one of the most common causes of death in Germany. According to the Sepsis Foundation, one person worldwide dies every four seconds as a result of sepsis. If left untreated, the body’s own organs such as the lungs, heart and kidneys are damaged, leading to fatal multiple organ failure and septic shock within hours.
If you have these early warning signs: contact a doctor!
In most cases, this could be prevented through education and early detection. It is important to recognize symptoms early:
Increased temperature, sometimes accompanied by tremors and chills Loud and unusual breathing noises Your child has little appetite or is vomiting He is unusually sleepy and does not feel like playing The injured body part is not put under any weight or used
Parents should therefore contact a doctor at the first signs. Beauden also showed symptoms early on, his mother remembers. “The strange thing was that at some point that evening he asked if it was bedtime, and he always fights bedtime.” The morning after, the three-year-old vomits and also has a high temperature.
Beauden is lucky in misfortune
Just a day later, when Beauden was “scalding hot” and breathing unusually quickly, his parents took him to the emergency room. His condition there is life-threatening. Doctors immediately operated on the boy in the room out of fear that he would not survive the trip to the operating room. They tell his parents it would be “a miracle if Beauden survived the night.”
But the three-year-old survives. He has to stay in the intensive care unit for two months. Because his limbs are no longer supplied with blood due to sepsis, both legs and three fingers of his left hand are amputated.
Today the now six-year-old boy has had 21 operations. With his two prosthetic legs, he plays baseball with his peers and rides his bike again. “He has a sunny disposition and is unstoppable, never complains,” says his mother. Only sometimes does he ask why he doesn’t have “legs with skin” like all the other children.
Attention & prevention – declaring war on sepsis
The family shares Beauden’s recovery journey and story on an Instagram channel. Also because they want to raise awareness about the dangers of sepsis. The project “Germany recognizes sepsis” also serves to raise awareness, in which the Sepsis Foundation plays a key role alongside the Patient Safety Action Alliance and other partners. The more people are informed about the underestimated danger, symptoms and prevention options of sepsis, the more lives can be saved.
In addition to education, prevention is also important in the fight against sepsis. Because everyone can take action before an infection even occurs. As a first step, it helps to stick to simple hygiene measures. Many infections are transmitted through the hands. To do this, wounds should be thoroughly cleaned immediately and then observed for signs of infection.
Vaccinations are also an essential part of infection and therefore sepsis prevention. They can help your own immune system to better deal with pathogens before an infection occurs or effectively weaken the progression of the disease.
Vaccinations are available against some of the most common sepsis triggers. The Standing Vaccination Commission (STIKO) at the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) points out that vaccinations against
Influenza (flu) pneumococci (pneumonia) meningococci (meningitis) and Haemophilus influenzae B (infections in newborns and young children)
can help reduce the frequency of new cases of sepsis.
Further information on the topics of sepsis and sepsis prevention is available at www.sepsis-stiftung.de.