The death of engineer and former Kansas City Chiefs cheerleader Krystal “Krissy” Anderson, sadly, is shedding light on the disparities that Black women face with sepsis, a life-threatening condition that many of us have probably never heard of.
What is Sepsis?
Sepsis is a serious condition in which the body responds improperly to an infection. The infection-fighting processes turn on the body, causing the organs to work poorly.
Sepsis may progress to septic shock. This is a dramatic drop in blood pressure that can damage the lungs, kidneys, liver and other organs. When the damage is severe, it can lead to death.
Sepsis in its early stages can mirror common pregnancy symptoms, so it can be hard to diagnose. Due to a lack of training, some medical providers don’t know what to look for. Common symptoms can include fever or pain in the area of infection. Sepsis can occur during pregnancy, childbirth, post-abortion, or the postpartum period.
Maternal sepsis is a leading cause of maternal mortality in America. Black women are twice as likely to develop severe maternal sepsis, as compared to their White counterparts. Sepsis can develop quickly, so a timely response is crucial, so slow or missed diagnosed sepsis can be particularly deadly.
But slow or missed diagnoses can also be the result of bias, structural racism in medicine and inattentive care that leads to patients, particularly Black women, not being heard.
“The way structural racism can play out in this particular disease is not being taken seriously,” said Dr. Laura Riley, chief of obstetrics and gynecology at Weill Cornell Medicine and New York-Presbyterian Hospital. “We know that delay in diagnosis is what leads to these really bad outcomes.”
