Oak Hill, WV (WOAY) On May 21st, former NASCAR star Kyle Busch passed away at age 41. The following week, his death certificate confirmed the cause of death: pneumonia that progressed into sepsis, resulting in rapid complications.
Health Officer of Fayette County Health Department, Dr. Steven Eshenaur, shares his expertise on how common illnesses can become deadly:
“He did develop pneumonia and unfortunately passed away secondary to developing sepsis from that pneumonia. That is all I know publicly. But in general, looking at pneumonia is when people start to experience fever, chills, productive cough, fatigue, etc., all warning signs of pneumonia. They need to be treated sooner rather than later. The earlier that you achieve treatment, the less likely it is to develop and end up in a bad outcome such as becoming septic.”
When infections of any kind are left untreated for too long, the body’s response can go into overdrive, or sepsis, which can be life-threatening.
“Think of sepsis as a systemic infection. The infection goes throughout the body, and when this happens, it can lead to a cascade of events and cause someone to go into multi-organ failure. And the infection can actually overwhelm the body pretty quickly. That’s why sepsis is such a critical condition that is identified early in an emergency visit, and the physician jumps on that treatment early because it can be fatal.”
For many of us, it isn’t practical to see a doctor every time we cough, but be aware of the symptoms of serious infections, and be sure to get help if they persist.
“Probably one of the biggest indicators is a fever. A fever indicates that the body is fighting something and needs to raise its temperature to help fight off that particular bacteria or virus. When you’re running a fever, you know that you have an infection that is causing some significant issues versus, say, allergies, a viral cold that is causing some cough, but no fever, chills with it.”
It can be hard to avoid infectious diseases in daily life, but when it comes to chronic illnesses that could get worse, Dr. Eshenaur says prevention is often the best treatment.
“What I see commonly as an emergency physician and public health officer is that a lot of people don’t have a provider, a physician, a physician assistant, nurse practitioner, and they don’t get regular checkups. It’s really important to see a provider and have regular checkups because an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. And as I say here at the health department all the time, the easiest disease to treat is the one you never get.”
