Christine Caron’s life-altering health crisis began in May 2013 innocently enough — she sustained a small nip to her hand while playing with her four dogs.
Several days later while at work, she developed a sudden on-set of flu-like symptoms just 22 hours before she collapsed in her regional hospital emergency department. Unfortunately, Ms. Caron’s superficial cut had become infected, and by the time she was transferred to the Civic, she had been in a medically induced coma for 20 days. She was in septic shock. While doctors managed to save Christine’s life, her treatment required multiple limb amputations.
Sepsis is the most common reason why patients are admitted to ICUs, according to Dr. Lauralyn McIntyre, critical care physician and a leading sepsis researcher at The Ottawa Hospital. It accounts for about 20% of the ICU cases.
Dr. McIntyre’s care of critically ill patients has inspired her to find better ways to treat sepsis. “It’s the complexity of the infection and the challenge that drew me to the research, but also knowing the potential to help patients and see if we can make them better.”
The Ottawa Hospital is taking big steps forward in the next phase of its leading clinical trials using stem cells to treat septic shock. Laboratory studies and early clinical trial results were so promising that Dr. McIntyre’s research was awarded $2.3 million from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the Stem Cell Network to begin a larger trial.
