Suspect Sepsis, Save Lives, Support Recovery.
What is Sepsis?
Sepsis is a life-threatening condition that occurs when the body’s response to an infection injures its own tissues and organs.
According to recent estimates, one in eighteen deaths in Canada involves sepsis, making it the twelfth leading cause of death nationally. Globally, sepsis affects an estimated 18 million people each year. The condition remains a leading cause of death in the Global South.
Many patients diagnosed with sepsis require care in the Intensive Care Unit, placing a considerable burden on the healthcare system. The cost of treating sepsis in Canada amounts to $325 million annually. Even as the diagnosis and treatment of sepsis improve, rates are on the rise.
Become a Member or Affiliate
The Canadian Sepsis Foundation is a national charitable organization led by sepsis survivors, family partners, critical care specialists, researchers, and volunteers.
Our mission is to help Canadians understand the signs and risks of sepsis and to strengthen public awareness, prevention and advocacy across Canada.
Join our mission and become a member or affiliate of the Canadian Sepsis Foundation!
Our Sepsis Stories
The goal of our sepsis stories is to bring awareness and educate the public about sepsis, what can trigger it and how it affects patients and their families.
My Mother; Alice Mary Onyona was diagnosed with high blood pressure in 2008. In 2016 medical reports showed that she had mitral valve regurgitation. There was fluid build-up around her lungs (pleural effusion). As a result, she had a persistent cough.
My sepsis story began on February 22, 2013 with the birth of my daughter Hannah. I had a healthy, normal and natural delivery at East General Hospital in Toronto. Within 24 hours of delivery, I was released from the hospital and everything was fine.
But at 5 days, I took a turn and was incubated and intubated for weeks. My parents received their very own Christmas miracle when the Doctor told them I was able to finally go home. Being a premie my lungs never fully developed and as a child I was prone to getting viral and bacterial infections. When I got sick, it hit me hard and for weeks. As I matured, I watched my peers run, play sports and dance. I always knew I was different. I could never breath properly after any type of exertion.
I am a sepsis survivor. Battered and bruised but still walking and talking. I am one of the lucky ones. We caught it early and my little local hospital threw enough varied antibiotics at me that we stopped the infections.
I was a 100% healthy, 43-year-old woman. I am also a registered nurse. I became ill in December of 2012 as I was getting ready for that year's Christmas festivities. My 4 daughters, aged 14 and under, husband and I were all busy with work, school, friends, Christmas prep and parties.
Back in 2016, we almost lost Benny.
That experience changed my life forever. I was always that chill easygoing parent when my kids got sick. In 2016, that changed.
My daughter, Camila “Millie” Rose was a happy, healthy, energetic ray of sunshine. She had a donut party for her fifth birthday on September 14, 2019.
There are many of you who have asked about the whole story of my husband Carl's illness. Sepsis has done so much damage to my husband.
My daughter, Camila “Millie” Rose was a happy, healthy, energetic ray of sunshine. She had a donut party for her fifth birthday on September 14, 2019.
Can you imagine waking up in ICU, being informed that you had been on life support for a month and that you almost died and having no memory of how you got there?! It sounds like a nightmare but is the reality for many people surviving septic shock.
In the four years before his death, Danny Makhoul had had a history of periodic but increasingly severe, short-lived upper abdominal pain incidents which had eluded diagnosis. On the second day of a Maritime vacation in August 2023, he suddenly became extremely ill.
5 years ago, had someone said to me “life is about to put you on a path that’s going to pull the very tapestry of your life as you know it right out from underneath you, flip you upside down and turn your world inside out.” I would have never believed it, but life did exactly just that. This is our story.
I was a former military lineman and was working a telecommunications job in the private sector. I was also a drummer in a band most weekends.
On November 8, 2017, I presented to our local emergency room suffering with severe abdominal pain, diarrhoea, and nausea. The inability to keep any food down had also left me slightly malnourished
My sepsis story begins November 1 2016.
I woke up that morning with shivers. Around noon the nausea, vomiting and fever started. I'm not sure how high my temp got that day but I do remember having a 101 temp a couple of hours after taking tylenol.
Hi, I'm Diane M.,
My sepsis story started July 8 2016, I was having an ovary removed to check for cancer. what was suppose to be a 45 minute procedure turned into a 1.5 hrs, and abdominal staples which I wasn't supposed to have. I was sent home with no explanation just told to return in a week to have staples removed.
Spring in Edmonton, Djibril, a 24 year old athlete, football player and volunteer with the Edmonton Police Service North Division was out riding with a friend when his motorcycle was clipped by a passing car. He survived the accident with only a few cuts and bruises.
“The accident was not that severe even today whenever I think about it. It’s the aftermath that almost took me out.”
It has been nine years almost to the date since my sepsis story began in Spring 2012. It was a beautiful Saturday, much like today. My youngest son was bouncing on the trampoline in the backyard. I was watching him, gardening, and laughing at his antics.
In April 2023, I packed my bags for what was supposed to be the trip of a lifetime, The Cheerleading Worlds in Florida with my mom. This wasn’t just any trip. It was my second time competing at Worlds, something most cheerleaders only dream of. I had trained for years, poured my heart into this sport, and here I was, about to step onto the biggest stage in the world again.
At 18 years old, I was relatively healthy, well, as healthy as someone with a chronic illness and a compromised immune system could be. I had never experienced a health crisis like the one I was about to endure, and honestly, I didn’t see it coming.
Sepsis and Hodgkin Lymphoma: Realistic Expectations
I am still in shock! No pun intended. Using a sense of humour does help with accepting and advocating for your life. It also can act as a distraction to the seriousness of a deadly diagnosis such as Sepsis.
Two days before Christmas - my mother’s favourite holiday - she was told that they found cancer on her lung and that it spread throughout her body. Our family was preparing for a lung cancer diagnosis and on January 4, 2022 she was officially diagnosed with Stage 4 non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma.
As I open these boxes I’m filled with apprehension as the smell of fire fills my senses… and I am flooded with love and a profound sadness. These boxes make it all so suddenly real and the memory’s flood me with grief as how this all unfolded.
After having major back surgery and being discharged to home, I developed sepsis. (Sepsis and Surgery)
A lot of circumstances lead up to this, but I won’t elaborate further. I was home and felt well for 2 days.
My name is Kelley. I am the mother of two young adults and bonus mom to my fiancé’s two young daughters.
In February 2017 I had a routine hysterectomy, all went well and I was discharged. About 7 days post op I started feeling ill.
In May 2024, my life changed in an instant. What was supposed to be a normal part of postpartum recovery turned into a nightmare when I developed an invasive Group A Strep infection that quickly became sepsis.
On March 8th 2019, I woke up feeling completely normal. At 9am I caught the bus to work and felt a sharp intense pain in my right side. By the time I got to work I was in overwhelming pain, and headed to the hospital.
Latest News
July 30, 2026
The Canadian Sepsis Foundation (CSF) has been granted registered charitable status by the Canada Revenue Agency. Effective June 16, 2026, the Foundation is a charitable organization under the Income Tax Act, and every donation is now eligible for an official charitable tax receipt.
September 22, 2025
A groundbreaking study from Hamilton Health Sciences’ (HHS) Centre for Burn Research looked at the connection between major burns and #sepsis, a common complication for burn patients.
September 23, 2025
'It was clear to us that we needed to take a different approach to it,' says team co-lead.
September 15 2025
Kayla Dort has been a registered nurse in the emergency department at Cobequid Community Health Centre (CCHC) for nearly a decade. While recovering from an ankle injury, she stepped into a resource support role assisting her manager.
September 13 2025
On World Sepsis Day, Dr. Issac Bogoch explains the signs and preventions of sepsis that the public should know.
9 September 2025
Gurinder and Ravinder Sidhu were excited to welcome their third baby in June. That excitement turned to fear and then grief after Ravinder died from sepsis shortly after her son's birth.
9 September 2025
It’s a sudden, silent killer that some nurses and doctors are ill prepared to diagnose, according to a group of Canadian researchers.
8 September 2025
A GTA family is calling for accountability and new hospital policies after a mother died earlier this summer, following childbirth. As CBC's Sarah MacMillan explains, the family says staff at Mississauga's Credit Valley Hospital didn't act quickly enough to recognize and treat sepsis.
3 September 2025
A family from Grande Prairie, Alta., has been awarded damages in a multimillion-dollar lawsuit over medical care of their infant daughter, who became a quadruple amputee after a bacterial infection was treated too late.
21 August 2025
Finley was triaged a Level 2 on the Canadian triage acuity scale. “The guidelines states a patient at a Level 2, should be seen by a physician within 15 minutes!”