The death of NASCAR driver Kyle Busch, a relatively healthy 41-year-old, startled the public in late May when his severe pneumonia progressed into sepsis. While pneumonia is a common condition, Busch’s development of sepsis, when the body goes into organ failure after an infection, is highly unusual, as sepsis tends to affect patients who are either very young, very old, or have chronic medical conditions.
Despite being one of the costliest, deadliest conditions patients may experience in the hospital, sepsis is less understood than other health challenges like stroke and heart attacks. But Busch’s death has highlighted how much that needs to change.
At University of Florida Health and the UF Sepsis and Critical Illness Research Center, where I serve as the director, we are using AI-powered research to detect and treat sepsis in ways that go far beyond the clinical trials of the past several decades.
Sepsis is challenging because each patient’s response is unique and requires an individualized treatment strategy. Busch’s sepsis, for example, led to a condition called disseminated intravascular coagulation, which causes the body’s blood-clotting system to become dangerously overactive and contributes to both widespread clotting and severe bleeding. Unfortunately, surviving acute sepsis, the rapid-onset, systemic reaction to an initial infection, as in Busch’s situation, does not always mean a patient will have optimal long-term outcomes.
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Many septic patients enter a state of “chronic critical illness” that can lead to post-ICU syndrome, with an increased risk of developing other conditions or dying within one to two years of hospital discharge. The public is aware of long COVID, and it can be helpful to think of this post-sepsis syndrome as “long sepsis,” except that long sepsis can be secondary to any type of infection. Research at UF has determined that up to one-third of sepsis survivors can enter this state, where they are unable to break the vicious cycle of the disease and fully recover.
Some of the exciting work underway at our center focuses on identifying genetic markers that can help us understand why long sepsis affects some patients more than others. Our team recently received a $2.1 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to do just that. We are using AI and advanced genetic sequencing to decode massive amounts of medical data, examining how specific immune cells behave and interact.
By uncovering these hidden biological patterns, we hope to move away from a one-size-fits-all approach to sepsis care, allowing doctors to identify high-risk individuals early and provide targeted treatments. We are excited to leverage all our resources, from world-class scientists to some of the most powerful AI research tools in the country, in our efforts to improve the lives of patients everywhere.
In addition to the clinical care and research underway at UF, spreading awareness about sepsis will hopefully lead to better patient outcomes. Early detection and treatment are still some of the most powerful tools we have. Through education and support to continue further research and outreach, we can collectively help reduce the number of infections that become life-threatening.
I encourage everyone to raise sepsis awareness among friends, family, and colleagues, so that we can all help decrease the incidence of infections that have the potential of progressing to septic shock. Busch’s death is a reminder of why these conversations are more important than ever.
Philip Efron is a surgeon.
