Indiana health official, hospital group puts focus on sepsis

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - Indiana's top health official and the state's hospitals are spreading the word about the dangers posed by sepsis.

Interim state health commissioner Pam Pontones is scheduled to join Indiana Hospital Association members and others at a Wednesday event in Indianapolis to educate the public about the potentially fatal condition.

Sepsis was once misleadingly called blood poisoning or a bloodstream infection. It occurs when the body goes into overdrive while fighting an infection and injures its own tissue. That resulting cascade of inflammation and other damage can lead to shock, amputations, organ failure or death.

More than 250,000 Americans die each year from sepsis and about 3,000 of them are Hoosiers.

A sepsis survivor is also scheduled to speak at Wednesday's rally at the Indiana War Memorial.