A Maryland mother who lost her son to sepsis is now fighting for stricter protocols at hospitals as the vicious disease kills one American every 90 seconds.
Lochlin DeSantis was just five years old in January 2020 when he came down with the flu. But what is usually a relatively harmless illness turned into a much more sinister illness.
Within two days of the onset of his sore throat and fever, he could no longer walk – moving his legs was strangely painful.
Just a day later, Lochlin began to lose consciousness, resulting in a panicked rush to the local hospital.
Devastatingly, Lochlin, who describes his mother as an ‘old soul’, was dead within 12 hours.
Brooke DeSantis described her son Lochlin (center) as an “old soul” who loved feeding the homeless and longed to volunteer
Lochlin came down with the flu on Friday and deteriorated rapidly. On Monday he suffered organ failure and died at just five years old
The little boy’s body was attacked by sepsis, an extreme overreaction of the immune system that is responsible for one in three hospital deaths and has been called a ‘silent killer’.
“Now my mission is to make sure people have access to everything they need to prevent the spread of infectious diseases and keep their families safe,” Lochlin’s mother, Brooke DeSantis, a nurse, told DailyMail.com .
“Unfortunately we couldn’t do that with ours.”
Sepsis is a medical emergency caused by the body’s extreme response to an infection. It occurs when chemicals released into the bloodstream cause the immune system to go haywire.
Instead of sending infection-fighting white blood cells to attack a foreign invader, it targets healthy tissues and organs such as the limbs, lungs and kidneys.
Infections that lead to sepsis usually start in the skin, urinary or respiratory tract, lungs, or digestive system, but almost any infection can lead to sepsis – starting from wounds as innocuous as paper cuts.
According to the charity Sepsis Alliance, half of all cases come from an unknown pathogen.
“He had a love for football and family, his friends, hockey. He was one of the nicest kids I ever met,” Lochlin’s mother, Brooke DeSantis, told DailyMail.com
Ms. DeSantis is now working to raise awareness about sepsis and increase access to vaccines like the flu shot to prevent the disease
Ms. DeSantis said that despite Lochlin’s emergency physician assuring her that his symptoms were normal for the flu, a nagging feeling in the back of her head gave her pause.
‘Even though I felt like I shouldn’t have listened to it [the doctor’s] advice, I trusted him. “I trusted that I would just go home,” she said. ‘And that’s exactly what I did. He was a medical professional with a higher license than me, so I took his advice as he said and took Lochlin home.”
“And that was probably the worst thing that could have happened.”
According to the CDC, sepsis affects 1.7 million Americans every year.
Every year, 350,000 Americans die from sepsis, or one every 90 seconds.
Sepsis Alliance estimates that 75,000 American children develop sepsis each year, about 200 per day. This includes more than 5,000 deaths, or 18 per day.
According to the Sepsis Alliance, it is the leading cause of death in U.S. hospitals, accounting for 35 percent of hospital deaths. However, 34 percent of Americans have never heard of it.
Certain groups are more susceptible to the condition, including adults over 65 years of age, children under one year of age, patients with weakened immune systems and those who have had sepsis in the past. However, anyone can get it.
There is no single test, but doctors look for signs of infections with measures such as blood tests. Sepsis can develop into septic shock, which is characterized by a severe drop in blood pressure.
Signs of septic shock include inability to get up, extreme fatigue or inability to stay awake, and a major change in mental status, according to the Mayo Clinic.
Signs of sepsis are very similar to the flu, making it extremely difficult to catch early
Data from JAMA and the CDC have shown that sepsis is on the rise and most US hospitals do not have a special protocol.
For every hour that treatment is delayed, the risk of death increases by four to nine percent.
Ms. DeSantis said many of these deaths may be due to few doctors recognizing the symptoms, which can be very similar to the flu. This makes it extremely difficult to detect early.
“It’s changing so quickly, and that’s the problem,” she said. “Lochlin was tested for flu and the result was positive, but they didn’t base that on the main reason why it was there. The bottom line is to discharge the patient and not treat him for the reason he was there.”
“And with that, many physicians, because they have to see so many patients in a time frame, are going through patients and missing the real signals that they should be looking for.”
“That’s where I wanted to see that change, not just for one location or a hospital, but for the entire state, because when you go in as a patient or a loved one and take care of a patient, you want to see that all the answers are there. ‘
Sepsis Alliance has also found that cases are increasing, which may be partly due to a lack of cohesive care.
The US does not have a national sepsis protocol, and CDC data from 2023 found that more than 1,400 hospitals – about a quarter – in the US do not have a sepsis program.
“Doctors aren’t getting enough information to help them diagnose sepsis,” Dr. Steven Simpson, professor of medicine at the University of Kansas and president of the Sepsis Alliance, previously told DailyMail.com.
‘There is no catchy phrase to help doctors and hospitals pay attention to this, as there is in other countries.
“Every hospital in the country should have a sepsis committee, a sepsis quality improvement program, and organize their facility to be ready to detect and treat sepsis. That is absolutely not the case at the moment.’
After Lochlin’s death, Mrs. DeSantis and her husband, William, founded the charity Love for Lochlin, which aims to raise awareness and provide education about sepsis to medical professionals and community members.
One of the most important victories is the passage of the Lochlin Law in Maryland. Under the legislation, beginning January 1, 2025, every hospital and urgent care center in the state will be required to “implement an evidence-based protocol for the early recognition and treatment of a patient with sepsis, severe sepsis, or septic shock that is based on general acceptable standards of care.”
It will also involve ‘requesting a specialized psychiatric hospital to set up a certain process; and require hospitals and urgent care centers to require periodic training in the implementation of the protocol for certain personnel.”
Mrs. DeSantis and her husband, William, started Love for Lochlin, which raises sepsis awareness and educates community members and physicians
“It means they have access to what we couldn’t get for our son,” Ms. DeSantis said. ‘Every person we help, so Lochlin’s love and memory survives with us all’
“So if a patient comes in and their vital signs are out of range on two out of three, then it automatically becomes clear that they need to do further testing to rule out sepsis,” Ms. DeSantis said.
‘Or to ensure that if they have one, they are taken to hospital straight away. Not they themselves, but a medical unit takes them there.’
Lochlin’s law will be signed into law by Maryland Governor Wes Moore on May 16 and will go into effect on October 1.
Ms. DeSantis noted that the legislation is the first of its kind, as some other state rules, such as Rory’s Regulations in New York, only cover hospitals and adult patients.
Lochlin’s law will include hospitals, emergency care and specialty care facilities such as nursing homes and detox facilities. It also applies to children.
Love for Lochlin is also working to increase access to flu vaccines to prevent the disease from progressing to sepsis in the first place.
“It means they have access to what we couldn’t get for our son,” Ms. DeSantis said. ‘Every person we help, so Lochlin’s love and memory survives with us all.’
“It’s a village that’s fighting right now, not just us.”
