Can sepsis break your heart?
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What percentage of sepsis patients develop cardiovascular complications like atrial fibrillation?
I think about a third of people will have some cardiovascular event while they're hospitalized. Uh and uh some people have said that atrial fibrillation alone may occur in as much as forty percent or so of patients with sepsis.
That is a stat actually I did not know. Yeah. It's a crazy start if you think about it. Four up to forty percent.
Yeah.
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My name is Mary Millard, and I live in the Baton Rouge area of Louisiana. And I'm a retired nurse, uh, being forced to retire, uh, kind of what happened to me. I went into the hospital in 2014 and they found a large aneurysm uh on my aortice at the base of my heart, and it had partially collapsed my valve. three days later, a day before the surgery, I went to an uh cardiac arrest, full arrest. They could not bring me with uh back with the paddles three times. I had a six minute and forty five second code. And after that they decided to do ECMO. It's a uh machine and it circulates and oxygenates your blood for you. I was on ECMO for about a week. My own heart started coming back after they cleared it. I had been weakened quite a bit.
And uh they did the surgery. They told me you're gonna go home in about ten days and everything will be fine. Later I was put in to step down and uh my husband said he came into the room. And he found me with my head hanging down, burning up, and I was talking incoherently. And this is uh where it went a little bit wrong. The nurse did not come in and assess me. They sent me to uh neurology to get a workup. And I was in neurology for seven hours. And uh there's a note at the end of uh the neurologist's uh assessment that said possibly seven hours. It was a very hard journey. I've also had to uh get a uh internal pacemaker because the oxidative stress from that sepsis uh hardened the heart and it has a hard time beating.
I'm told I can never get a transplant because I have all kinds of artificial plumbing. There and uh I suffer from PTSD. Every time I go into a hospital, I smell those gowns, I smell the tubing, and I just shut down. I just want to let people know that um hospital-acquired infections kills a lot of people, and one in 25 is a lot of people, and we need prevention to help prevent sepsis.
Hi everyone and welcome to the sepsis spectrum. I'm Nicole Kupchik, Critical Care Nurse, Clinical Nurse Specialist, and your guide through the wide, unpredictable world of sepsis, or as we like to call this season, sepsis and multi-organ dysfunction syndrome. On today's episode, we're gonna examine the relationship between sepsis and cardiovascular injury. Specifically, how infection can overwhelm the very system that keeps our organs alive. We just heard from Mary Millard, a septus survivor who went in for heart surgery. And as one setback led to another, experienced firsthand how septus can become the first domino in a devastating, life-altering chain of events. Mary's testimony.
How does Mary Millard’s personal sepsis story illustrate acute cardiac arrest and the need for ECMO?
Is an all too familiar one. I think it really hammers home that sepsis doesn't just lower the blood pressure or come and go. It leaves its mark. It disrupts the entire network of vessels, valves, and electrical rhythms that keeps the body in motion. And yes, the heart can survive the arrest, but what often remains is a chronic struggle with weakened organs and the long shadow of invasive care. The heart is billed to endure, but in sepsis, even that resilience is tested. Blood vessels lose tone, the heart weakens, and inflammation sets the stage for long-term damage. Joining me today is Dr. Mitchell Elkind, Chief Science Officer for Brain Health and Stroke at the American Heart Association. Dr. Elkind is a vascular and stroke neurologist whose research explores how infection and inflammation disrupt the cardiovascular system.
From the acute risk of heart attack, stroke, and atrial fibrillation. to the lasting vascular changes that raise risk long after recovery.
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What percentage of sepsis patients develop cardiovascular complications like atrial fibrillation?
0:00–3:47
2
How does Mary Millard’s personal sepsis story illustrate acute cardiac arrest and the need for ECMO?
3:47–11:05
3
Why is sepsis considered a stress test for the heart and how does it trigger acute arrhythmias and heart failure?
11:05–21:04
4
What are the three phases of cardiovascular injury after sepsis (acute, sub‑acute, long‑term) and their clinical implications?
21:04–30:11
5
How do inflammation and thrombo‑inflammation during sepsis lead to lasting vascular damage and atherosclerosis?
30:11–38:03