EVMS Magazine 2016-2017
Issue 9.4
Doug Gardener
Dramatic improvement seen in patient survival in ICU; Chance discovery could transform care of sepsis and save millions of lives worldwide
NORFOLK, VA (March 23, 2017) – A critical-care physician at Eastern Virginia Medical School (EVMS) believes he has found something that has eluded medicine for centuries: a cure for sepsis.
Paul Marik, MBBCh, developed the new treatment while caring for patients in the general intensive care unit at Sentara Norfolk General Hospital in Norfolk, Va. His formula consists of three common compounds given intravenously: vitamin C, steroids and thiamine.
Sepsis is a complication caused by the body’s overwhelming and life-threatening response to infection, which can lead to tissue damage, organ failure and death, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
More than 250,000 people in the United States die from sepsis annually, according to the Sepsis Alliance. It is the most common cause of death among hospitalized patients in the U.S. The Global Sepsis Alliance estimates that eight million people die worldwide as a result of sepsis each year.