September is “Sepsis” awareness month. The Centers for Disease Control estimates that every year nearly two million Americans get “Sepsis”.

Cassie Crum a nurse and working mom in Emporia started coming down with a virus. But after a while, she learned what she had was much more than just a common cold. 

“I felt like I was going to die, and I didn’t want to die, I was just completely out of it.  I was talking nonsense and then I would have a lucid conversation and would then fall asleep. If my son hadn’t called my mom and told her I wasn’t acting right and the things that I had done previously that were out of character for me, I probably would have died at home.”

Instead, Cassie went to the emergency room at Newman Regional Health — quickly learning she had Sepsis — an extreme response to an infection. 

She was sent by helicopter to Stormont Vail in Topeka, where she spent 8 days in a coma. 

“They later told me that I had several bleeds, because my temperature went up to 105, when I was in the coma. So that made my brain swell and then created a bunch of bleeds in my brain so I had strokes. so I had to rehab and learn how to walk again, learn how to talk again”.  

After getting out of the hospital, Cassie spent 2 months in rehab. She never thought her viral infection could turn into Sepsis — but now she knows — it can happen to anyone.

“I was a nurse and i got that sick.  and did not realize I was that sick”.

Cassie hopes her story is a wake-up call to others about the dangers of Sepsis, with the hope that awareness could save lives in the future.